Reader Eric Wilson was in touch this week to tell me the sad news that his mother-in-law Joyce Lomasney had passed away on the 18th April. Joyce was the cook and catering manageress at Coventry City's Ryton Training ground from 1968 to 1983.
Joyce came from Nottingham and joined the club after working as a cook at Woolston High School for 11 years. She was married to Ted, who worked at the Chrysler works, for 60 years before his death in 2008 and had two children, four grandchildren and three great grandchildren. In features on her in City programmes over the years she described how much she loved working for the club at Ryton and her and Ted were massive City fans.
Joyce Lomasney pictured with Ernie Hunt in the 1970s
One programme article described how former City centre-half Jim Holton accidently dropped his false teeth into a trifle that Joyce had made. The offending plate was fished out of the trifle only for Jim, with a deadpan face, to tell Joyce that he had dropped them in again. A furious Joyce threw the second trifle into the dustbin only for Jim to produce his dental plate from behind his back. Joyce was not amused and to cap it all manager Gordon Milne found Joyce's resignation on his desk the next morning, written by Jim Holton! It was all sorted out but the players wondered what Joyce might put in Big Jim's dinner in revenge. Articles also describe her love for the players of that era, in particular Tommy Hutchison, Ian Wallace, Ernie Hunt and Terry Yorath.
Joyce passed away, aged 95, at Te Hira Care Home in Rugby where she had stayed for the last two years. Prior to that the family home was in Leamington Road, Ryton, a short walk to the training ground. Joyce loved her job, and could always be heard singing on her way in! After her early retirement she and husband Ted continued to support the Sky Blues, however they were unable to attend as much as they had previously.
Coventry City's final average attendance is 19,541, the highest average since 2006-07 and the third highest since the club left the Premiership in 2001. The club have been rewarded for the exciting and attractive football played by the team this season and with season ticket sales for next season expected to set new higher records the average is likely to increase next season. The increase this season compared to 2018-19, the last season the club had played in Coventry, is 58%.
There were nine gates above 20,000 with the highest on Easter Monday for the visit of Bournemouth (24,492). The lowest was 15,587 for the midweek game with Hull in March. Compare this to 2006-07 when there were 12 20,000+ gates and a high of 27,212 (v Birmingham) and a low of 16,178 (v Colchester).
This season's higher average is also better than any City season in the 17-year period between 1979 and 1996 when average gates at Highfield Road fell to 10,500 in 1982-83 despite the club being in the top flight for the whole period. Admittedly gates were down across the whole country as football fell out of fashion for many.
After relegation in 2001 the Sky Blues attendances fell from around 20,500 to less than 15,000 in the last four seasons at Highfield Road before the novelty of the move to Longford pushed the average for the first season at the Ricoh, in 2005-06, back up to 21,211. In the following season the average dropped slightly to 20,342 and ever since the attendances have steadily slipped. Excluding the seasons at Northampton and Birmingham gates fell below 10,000 in 2014-15 before upward blips in the exciting 2016-17 season and again in 2018-19 when the club returned to League One.
The other average worth noting is the number of home fans in the stadium. This season's average is 17,256, the second highest since proper records of away fans were recorded and 62% higher than 2018-19. All in all the figures are excellent news for the club and will strengthen the management's desire to further improve the playing squad this summer.
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