A couple of interesting questions this week. Alex Smith sent me a picture of the programme produced by the club in October 1965 for the closed circuit televised game from Cardiff and wanted more information about this historic occasion.
As early as the close season of 1965 Jimmy Hill and the City board, in another example of their innovative ideas, had been exploring the feasibility of beaming an away match back to Coventry for fans who didn’t have the time or money to follow them away. Early applications to the Football League for the experiment were turned down on spurious grounds but in September the club got approval from the League and the Football Association to relay the away game at Cardiff. The league game had been rearranged from the previous Saturday, a Home International day with both clubs having players involved, and was re-scheduled for a Wednesday evening. With a high cost involved and a serious risk of technical difficulties the risk was borne by Viewsport Limited who purchased the necessary equipment and would not only take any profit on the project but more importantly shoulder any losses.
In an unprecedented hive of activity the screens, three in front of the Sky Blue Stand and a fourth in front of the main stand (for VIPs), were erected after a reserve game the previous evening. The workmen, hampered by fog, toiled all night long and a dummy-run by the projectionists had to be cancelled. More fog on the day of the game meant that not only the team had to cancel their chartered plane trip to South Wales and go by coach, but at Highfield Road the whole experiment looked doomed to fail. The fog thankfully lifted and the crowd were treated to pre-match entertainment in the shape of interviews with players and pictures of the players warming up at Ninian Park. City wore red and white striped shirts, borrowed from Stoke City (and used in Jimmy Hill’s football ‘soap’, United), to avoid any confusion on the black and white transmission. Former Spurs and Northern Ireland player Danny Blanchflower gave his views at half-time and the evening ended in true Coventry drama with a late goal to clinch a 2-1 away win, sending the Coventry fans delirious at both venues. A crowd of 10,295 watched at Highfield Road and an estimated 500 City fans were in the 12,000 who saw it ‘live’ at Ninian Park. The victory was City's first away win of the season and lifted them to second place in Division Two.
The pictures were clear and all agreed that the experiment was a great success and definitely the way football would go in the future. There was tremendous interest amongst other English clubs, 13 of who attended the screening, and also from abroad – in France the football magazine L’Equipe devoted half a page plus pictures to the pioneering night.
City did stage another closed circuit game later that season when they played Charlton Athletic at the Valley. This time the gate at Coventry was higher, 11,321 while 15,000 watched the live action in London. With the lighter nights, the kick-off time had to be put back to 8.30. This time however City lost, 0-2, a result which all but ended their thin promotion hopes, and the crowd were much more subdued. Viewsport again took on the risk and it was reported that they had broken even but Jimmy Hill was not convinced: ‘It is a matter of finding the right time to relay and everything would depend on how well the team was doing at the time.’
Stephen Watkin contacted me to request a list of the twelve largest Coventry City home attendances for a project he is undertaking.
The top twelve 'official' gates were all at Highfield Road:-
*at the Luton game in 1936 at least one gate was broken down by spectators and the actual attendance was probably higher.
All but three of the 12 gates occurred between 1967 and 1974 when the capacity of the stadium was over 40,000 with large expanses of terraces. The capacity of Highfield Road was reduced to 20,500 in 1981 with the all-seater stadium but increased to around 28,000 when the Spion Kop was re-opened in 1985. The largest crowd post-1981 was the 27,509 who watched City play Liverpool in August 1987.
One attendance not included in the list is the Sunderland FA Cup game in 1963. The official attendance was 40,487 but, like the Luton game in 1936, gates were broken down and possibly as many as 2-3,000 fans gained admittance for free and are not included in the official figures.
Coventry City fan James Adams who wrote the excellent 'Attached to Coventry City 1958-2020' has followed up with a new book 'Passionate – a psychological memoir of a Coventry kid'. James describes a fascinating life's journey, his support of Coventry City and a multi-faceted career with strands including education and religion. James has had many ups and downs in his life but describes his path towards positive mental health.
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