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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