Ron Newman (1 May 1933 – 20 February 2021)

It is sad to report the death, at the age of 87, of former Coventry City player Ron Newman. A skilful forward signed from Northampton Town in 1956 Ron scored within a minute of his debut against Southampton at Highfield Road which is probably the fastest ever City debut goal at a home game. Ron only played 13 games for the club over two seasons in what was a dark period for the club.

Born in Pontypridd in South Wales Ron was a talented all-rounder at school and represented Wales schoolboys at rugby as a scrum half. Despite growing up in the rugby hotbed of South Wales football took priority however after a Northampton scout spotted young Ron playing for Ynysybwl FC near his home town and he signed for the Cobblers in October 1953. Two other Pontypridd boys also joined Northampton around that time, Ken Leek, a Welsh international centre-forward who later played for Leicester City, and centre-half Colin Gale.

Ron had to wait almost two years for his first team debut, at Bournemouth in April 1955 when he scored the only goal. The following season Northampton started the season with five straight victories with Ron playing at inside right and he appeared to have cemented his place in the team. However an injury cost him his place and he was unable to get back into the team.

In March 1956 City manager George Raynor arranged a swap deal bringing Ron to Highfield Road with centre-forward Charlie Dutton moving to the County Ground. Coventry City was still in disarray after the departure of manager Jesse Carver back to Italy at Christmas. The team had been in a golden seam of form before his departure with seven wins in eight and lying fifth in Division Three South with an outside chance of promotion. Head coach Raynor, famous for leading Sweden to third place in the 1950 World Cup, had stepped into the manager's chair but the team's form had been poor with only two wins in nine and the team had slipped to 10th with any promotion hopes disappeared.

Three days after signing Ron went straight into City's first team for the home game with Southampton, replacing Eric Johnson and promptly scored in the very first minute. Nemo in the Coventry Telegraph described the goal in the Pink:

(Denis) Uphill started it with a splendid through pass to Peter Hill and the inside-left darted down the middle before drawing out Traynor and flicking the ball to 'new' boy Newman who coolly shot City into the lead with an unstoppable shot.

City won the game 2-0 with Ken McPherson scoring in the second half in front of 13,493 and Ron kept his place for a further five games and netted another goal in a 4-1 win over QPR. Ron lodged with a couple in Clovelly Road. There was another change of management at the club in the summer of 1956 with Harry Warren arriving from Southend and Ron was soon out of favour. After seven first team games early in the season he was in the reserves playing alongside a young George Curtis, Steve 'Kalamazoo' Mokone and Iain Jamieson. 

In 1957 he was released by City and joined another Third Division club Torquay United where he played four games that season before moving into non league soccer with Bedford, Rugby Town and Rushden Town. In 1964 after leaving Rushden Town he went to Wellingborough and for three years was player-coach to their reserve team, “Newman's chicks”, as they were known.

                          Ron at 2012 Legends Day

Ron worked in insurance for most of his working life, even when he was playing, and retired from the Britannic Assurance Company in 1996. He continued to live in Northampton with his wife Sheila (they were married for 63 years) and sons Kevin and Michael becoming a keen golfer at Northampton Golf Club and represented his county. Ron was a member of the Coventry Former Players Association and attended several Legends Days until his health deteriorated. His widow Sheila told me he was very proud to be in the Association and looked forward to receiving their newsletters. RIP Ron.

Jim's column 20-2-2021

Three weeks ago I wrote about Coventry City's nursery club in 1940s, Modern Machine Tools and how many of the teenagers who played for that team progressed to playing league football with City. I had an email from John Green.

Thanks for a great article on Modern Machine Tools team last Saturday. In the early days they played in the Coventry Minor League and their home games were played at Spencer Park. I was a goalkeeper and played on a couple of occasions as a stand-in for the injured Reg Matthews. Names I recall from those occasions, Albert Sneddon, John Quinney, Billy Gray, Jimmy and Peter Hill. I had signed for the club on a Sunday evening when Charlie Elliot, who was the chief scout, visited my home following a trial that morning at Highfield Road. A successful Cheylesmore Youth Club team who played in the Youth Club League were invited to play against the Modern Machine team and as goalkeeper I was monitored and coached through the game by Billy Morgan, who had been first team keeper before the war. I went on to play in the City 'A' Team but my father wanted me to finish my apprenticeship and so ended my time at Coventry City.

The 'A' team was City's third XI and in the late 1940s they played in the Birmingham Combination alongside some strong Midland non-league sides such as Nuneaton Borough, Atherstone, Bedworth as well as the 'A' teams from Wolves, West Brom and Birmingham City. I found a programme from January 1948 with John in goal for them for a game at Stafford Rangers. Also in the City team were three players who had played first team games, Bob Ward, Jack Evans and Freddie Gardner. Coventry-born Gardner was more famous as a cricketer, playing over 300 games for Warwickshire between 1947-61.

Loan signing Matty James became Coventry City's seventh captain of the season when he led the team out in the home game with Watford two weeks ago. He follows Liam Kelly, Kyle McFadzean, Michael Rose, Matty Godden, Dom Hyam and Fankaty Dabo. Initially I believed this to equal the club record set in 2016-17 (the League 1 relegation season) when seven different players took the armband. Subsequently I discovered that in 2010-11 eight different players skippered the team.

In 2010-11 Lee Carsley was club captain and led the team in every league game until just before Christmas when he was injured and Michael Doyle took over on four occasions. James McPake skippered the team in a League Cup tie at Morecambe. In January Doyle went on loan to Sheffield United and Keiren Westwood took the armband. In early March in a disastrous home game with Bristol City the club used three different captains – Westwood started but was injured and Marlon King took over but then received a red card for striking Bristol's Damian Stewart and Aron Gunnarsson ended the game with the armband. Richard Wood became the seventh captain for four games before Sammy Clingan made it eight captains when he took over for the final eight games of the season.

A while back Marshall Stewart told me a story about former City secretary Bernard Hitchener. Bernard served the club for over forty years, first as assistant secretary before the war and after the war as secretary until 1963 when he became ticket office manager. Marshall takes up the story.

One of Bernard's tasks at reserve games on Saturday afternoons when City's first team were away from home was to answer the telephone at Highfield Road whenever it rang from the away ground with the latest score. He then passed the news - often bad in the darkest days of the fifties - to the chairman in the directors' box. The chairman's expression communicated the bad news to nearby supporters and it gradually rippled around the ground. Otherwise, when City were losing, the fans had to wait until half time until a member of the ground staff trudged around the pitch to display the latest scores on the pitch-side scoreboard.  

                Bernard Hitchener in the CCFC Ticket Office

What a difference from these days when every game is shown on ifollow, social media reports every incident and goal from every game and the days of a hand operated scoreboard are long gone.

Peter Hindley (19.5.1944 – 1.2.2021)

It's sad to report the passing of former Nottingham Forest, Coventry City and Peterborough United defender Peter Hindley. Peter, who appeared in over 400 games for Forest, played only 33 games for the Sky Blues in 2 ½ seasons at the club in the 1970s but was a popular player and a big influence in the dressing room. Affectionately known at the City Ground as 'The Tank', Hindley was a tough, uncompromising full-back who switched to a central defensive role after his move to Coventry.

Born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, Peter was the son of a professional football, Frank, who was making his way in the game with Forest when World War 2 started in 1939. By the time hostilities ceased Frank, a centre-forward, was past his best and briefly played for Brighton.

Peter too started as a centre-forward in school where he was an outstanding natural athlete and scored heaps of goals for Worksop Boys Club including 50 in one season. When he went for trials at Forest they told him they didn't need any more centre-forwards but would he try out in defence. He quickly adapted his game and became one of the outstanding right-backs in the country during the mid 1960s. He made his first team debut as an 18-year-old but after playing in a variety of positions he became the regular right-back in 1964-65 and was a virtual ever present for nine seasons. In 1966-67 he was a member of an outstanding Forest team that finished second to Manchester United in the league and reached the FA Cup semi final before losing to Tottenham. Manager Johnny Carey was able to put out a virtually unchanged team throughout the season with four members, including Peter, playing every single match. Players like Joe Baker, Ian Storey-Moore, Terry Hennessey and Peter Grummitt were part of the finest Forest team in the pre-Clough era. Peter's performances earned him an Under 23 tour place and he won one cap in a 0-0 draw in Greece alongside future full internationals such as Allan Clarke, Ralph Coates and Colin Harvey.

After Forest were relegated from Division One in 1972 Peter retained his place but in January 1974 Coventry manager Gordon Milne, looking for defensive cover, signed him for £35,000 and he went straight into the first team. In an inauspicious debut City were thumped 5-1 at Newcastle however Neville Foulger in the Coventry Telegraph described his performance as 'impressive...showing real strength in the tackle'. He initially played at right-back but soon moved to central defence alongside either Larry Lloyd or Alan Dugdale. He rarely had a bad game for the Sky Blues but is more often unfairly remembered for a 35-yard own goal in a home defeat to Leeds.

Colin Stein was at the club at the same time as Peter and remembers him fondly: 'Pete was one of the fastest full-backs I've ever seen. He was strong and quick and loved to attack on the overlap. When he moved to centre-back he was a great partner for Larry Lloyd who wasn't the quickest. He loved his greyhounds and the horses and used to tell me to back any horse trained by Fred Winter.'

Another former playing colleague David Cross recalls Peter as: ' an unsung hero who was a proper player, hard but not dirty and very consistent not only on the pitch but off the pitch too. If you were in the trenches he was the sort of guy you'd want with you. We had a lot of fun in those days and really bonded on our end of season tour to Singapore. 'Honk', as he was known at the club, was always telling us which of his greyhounds was going to win and which to avoid because he'd been feeding them meat pies to slow them down.'

His former manager Gordon Milne cannot speak more highly of him: 'He had a great attitude to the game, he always gave 100% and really enjoyed his work. He had a smiley personality that rubbed off on his team-mates in the dressing room. For a big man he was quick and I was only sorry he picked up an injury at Coventry as he would have played a lot more games.'

                                               1975-76 squad

Peter suffered a groin injury at Bramall Lane in December of that year and struggled to regain his place when he was fit, making only two further appearances before his final game, again at Newcastle, in December 1975. Playing in the Central League side however he helped nurture future first teamers such as Harry Roberts, Paul Dyson and Garry Thompson.

Whilst at Highfield Road Peter was granted a testimonial by Forest and manager Gordon Milne's Sky Blue team played out a 1-1 draw at the City Ground with the Forest fans giving him a warm send off.

His widow Sandra told me: 'We loved our time at Coventry. We moved from Nottingham to Dunchurch and enjoyed living there, making lots of friends. The club was so friendly and the players and wives mixed a lot. We always enjoyed the annual Soccer Ball.'

After being given a free transfer in the summer of 1976 Hindley signed for Peterborough United, then managed by former City boss Noel Cantwell. Over the next three seasons he played 129 games for Posh but, at the age of 35, he was released after the club's relegation to Division Four in 1979. He went on to play one season for Southern league Burton Albion, managed by his former Forest team-mate Ian Storey-Moore.

After his football life he set up in business as a painter and decorator in the Peterborough area and continued with his hobby of training greyhounds. Sandra and Peter trained several dogs that won prestigious events at Wembley. He was first diagnosed with dementia thirteen years ago and had to give up his work and had been in a nursing home. He passed away last Monday and is survived by his wife Sandra , daughters Leanne and Francine and four grandchildren. RIP Peter

(thanks to Mike Young for pictures)