The new
football season kicks off today for the Sky Blues with a trip to
Yorkshire to face the Bantams of Bradford City. Here's hoping Steven
Pressley's new look side can improve on City's shocking record at
Valley Parade where only one victory has been gained in twelve
visits, that was back in 1959 in the old Third Division. Last season
City came very close, only to concede a 90th penalty which enabled
Nahki Wells to complete his hat-trick and make the final result 3-3.
There
has been sad news during the summer with three former City players
passing away. In June Don Bennett, one of the last professional
footballers to play first-class county cricket, died, followed in
July by Bill Farmer & Billy Gray.
Bill(y) Gray (03/12/1931 –
18/07/2014)
Bill was born in Binley of Scottish parents in
1931. During the war he was evacuated for a time to Stonehouse in
Scotland. He was a precocious young player who impressed playing for
Binley Youth Club before graduating in 1946 to play for Modern
Machine Tools which was effectively City's nursery side after the
war. Bill impressed City's management & he was offered a
professional contract in 1948, joining a host of other talented
youngsters at Highfield Road. During his National Service he was a PT
instructor in the army based on the Isle of Wight. A skilful
wing-half, Bill got his chance in October 1951 as a stand-in for the
injured Don Dorman. He made just two first team appearances, a 1-1
home draw with Birmingham & a 1-3 defeat at Leicester, before
returning to the reserves. In 1954 he left the club & went to
work at Morris Motors as a machinist whilst still playing football
for Southern League Kettering Town. Before long however he was
playing for Morris Motors in Coventry's local leagues. He later
worked at the Jaguar plant.
Bill moved to Northumberland nine years ago to be
close to his family but two years ago made a sentimental return to
the city to attend the 2012 CCFPA Legends Day and met up with several
of his former City pals including Lol Harvey & Trevor Lewis. His
son Alan told me that he took a lot of persuading to attend that day
arguing that nobody would remember him & that he would not go on
to the pitch. He relented however, thoroughly enjoyed himself &
spoke of nothing else for weeks afterwards. Sadly he succumbed to
Parkinson's disease.
Billy Gray
Bill Farmer (24/11/1927 –
02/07/2014)
Born in Guernsey along with his better known
younger brother Ron, the siblings were two of the few professional
footballers to have come out of the Channel Islands. Bill cut his
footballing teeth there with both St Martin’s FC and St Aubin’s
FC. He then spent three seasons at Nottingham Forest, along with Ron,
eventually making 58 first team appearances between the sticks
between 1953-56. He had signed for non-league Brush Sports in
Loughborough when Oldham Athletic came in for him in summer 1957 but
he only had five first team outings for the Boundary Park club by the
time he joined Worcester City for the 1958-59 season.
In the meantime in November 1958 brother Ron had
been signed up from Forest by Bantam’s manager Billy Frith. Billy
was persuaded to take a look at Bill as potential additional
goalkeeping cover for the popular Arthur Lightening and brought him
to Highfield Road in August 1959. In the event Bill only made a
handful of reserve appearances for City and he soon moved on to Corby
Town where he retired in 1960.
Don Bennett
(18/12/1933 – 12/06/2014)
Don Bennett, who died in June, grew up in an age
when outstanding sportsmen could play more than one sport at the top
levels. In the same era Willie Watson & Arthur Milton both
represented England at both cricket & football & future City
manager Noel Cantwell did likewise for Ireland. A prodigious
cricketer in his youth in West London Don joined the Lords
groundstaff on leaving school and at the age of 16 made his
first-class debut for Middlesex. He went on to make almost 400
appearances for the county over 18 seasons as a right-handed middle
order batsman and medium fast bowler. Football was his second love
and he spent eight winters as a regular in Arsenal’s reserve team
as a full back or left winger before Billy Frith signed him for
Coventry City in 1959. He made his City debut on the wing in a 4-0
home win over Bournemouth but soon moved back to become first-choice
right-back as City went close to promotion in his first season. Don
was always a late starter in the football season owing to his cricket
commitments; he never appeared before mid-September and was never
photographed in the pre-season team picture. However apart from the
first half dozen or so games of the season he was a regular until
early 1962, making 77 appearances in a City shirt. After Jimmy Hill
became manager in late 1961 Don lost his place & was released the
following summer enabling him to concentrate on his cricket. In the
1960s he regularly supported Coventry players’ testimonials by
bringing a Middlesex team to the Wellesbourne 6-a-side tournament.
After retiring from cricket in 1968 he became a coach, and was
responsible for a very successful Middlesex first XI until 1997,
later becoming the club President.
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