Jim's column 11.4.2020

More questions from readers this week. Please keep them coming, answering them is keeping me sane! Send your questions to clarriebourton@gmail.com or via Twitter @clarriebourton :

Lifelong City fan Mike Jones asked me for information on the game he thinks was his first visit to Highfield Road around 1958 to watch City play Grimsby. He thought it was a draw and that the visitors played in their traditional black and white striped shirts but with red or pink shorts: The game in question sounds like the game played on Saturday 12th September 1960, a 0-0 draw. According to the Historical Soccer Kits website (www.historicalkits.co.uk) that season Grimsby's colours were white shirts with black trim and red shorts. I suspect there would have been a colour clash with Coventry's white shirts with blue trim so Grimsby probably wore their change shirts of black and white striped shirts with the red shorts. It is hard to confirm that however. City's team in the 0-0 draw was as follows: Lightening: Kletzenbauer, Austin: Nicholas, Curtis, Kearns: Stiffle, Straw, Myerscough, Farmer, B Hill. Myerscough and Scott of Grimsby were sent off near the end after punches were thrown. The attendance was 13,906.

Gary Donely queried my assertion that George Hudson is the only City player to score a hat-trick on his debut recently. He is convinced that George Kirby did the feat a year after Hudson and remembers attending a cousin's wedding that day in Manchester and hearing the news during the evening reception: George Kirby was one of two transfer deadline signings made by Jimmy Hill in March 1964 (John Smith was the other) when the Sky Blues looked in danger of blowing their promotion hopes having failed to win in seven games. Kirby, a rugged centre-forward who was deadly in the air, signed from Southampton and went straight into the team at Bournemouth with Hudson moving to inside forward. City lost 2-1 to a late Bumstead goal, a defeat that left them four points behind leaders Crystal Palace with only eight games to play. The following Saturday Kirby scored three on his home debut as City got back to winning ways with a 4-1 victory over Oldham. He only scored two further goals in the final seven games but the team lost only once more and the Oldham game was seen as a crucial moment in the promotion campaign. In Division Two the following season George played just nine games (scoring five goals) as Hudson came back to form and he was sold to Swansea Town at the end of September.

The Derby County Collection, a charity that maintains Derby's archive collection wanted to know if I had a programme/brochure for the Anchor Cup, played for in the Far East in 1974 between City, Derby and Everton: I do have a large collection of City programmes with virtually every competitive programme since World War Two but I don't have this one. The triangular friendly competition involving City, Derby and Everton took place in Singapore in May 1974 and City flew out their 16-man full squad with the exception of Tommy Hutchison who was in the Scotland squad preparing for the World Cup in June. The Anchor Cup was sponsored by Malaysian Breweries who invested $450,000 in the competition. Six years before Coventry carried off the Anchor Cup Guinness had merged with Malayan Breweries forming a new company called Guinness Anchor. Prior to the tournament starting City lost 3-2 to Derby in Kuantan, Malaysia in an exhibition game with Brian Alderson netting both City goals. Three days later City moved to Singapore and beat Everton 2-1 (Willie Carr and David Cross on target). In the next game Derby and Everton played out a 2-2 draw meaning that a draw in the final game against Derby would mean City lifted the trophy. Roger Davies put the Rams ahead on 57 minutes but John Craven equalised, following up when his penalty was saved by Colin Boulton. City director Tom Sargeant was awarded the interesting trophy. The Derby County collection have a trophy from the competition, apparently given to all three clubs but, to date, I have failed to find that trophy in City's archives. Does anyone out there have a copy of the brochure for the tournament?

Geoff Wilkinson wondered if I knew where City goalscoring legend Clarrie Bourton lived when he played for the club in the 1930s: I have a photocopy of one of Clarrie's contracts from 1934 and his address is given as 34 Dane Road, Wyken. The club owned a number of houses in that part of the city and were utilised by players' families right up until the 1960s. Incidentally Clarrie's wages were £7 per week in the winter, with a £1 win bonus, and £6 in the summer.

Jim's column 12.1.2013

                                                    George Stewart

Goal machine David McGoldrick left Coventry City last week after one of the finest goalscoring runs ever by a Coventry City player. In his three-month loan from Nottingham Forest he netted 16 league goals and two more in the JPT. His league goals make him the highest City scorer in a season since Dion Dublin in the 1997-98 season (that saw him finish as the joint leading scorer, with Michael Owen), in the Premiership and he did it in only 22 games. In the last 45 years only four players have scored more league goals in a season for the Sky Blues (Dublin, Ian Wallace, Terry Gibson and Mickey Quinn). McGoldrick’s scoring ratio is a phenomenal 0.72 and only bettered by three players in the club’s history. In 1933-34 Clarrie Bourton was injured and his stand-in Arthur ‘Rasher’ Bacon scored 16 goals in 14 games before the great man returned to the side. Bacon only played two more games over the next two seasons, scoring one further goal – overall scoring at a rate of 1.06 goals per game. In 1962-63 Terry Bly netted 25 goals in 32 league games (a ratio of 0.78) before Jimmy Hill controversially dropped him in favour of George Hudson. The third is Bourton himself who over a six-season career at Highfield Road scored 173 goals in 228 league games for a ratio of 0.76. By virtue of his longevity Bourton’s record is the most impressive but McGoldrick will be fondly remembered by City fans for many years to come.

Talking of impressive goalscorers I have just discovered the sad news that former City centre-forward George Stewart died in June 2011 aged 84. Stewart hailed from Buckie, a small fishing village in the North of Scotland, and as a teenager was playing for Buckie Thistle when he earned the nickname ‘seven-goal Stewart’ after scoring seven goals in consecutive games. Dundee spotted him and over the next eight years he built a formidable reputation in Scotland scoring goals for Dundee, and St Mirren, where he was leading scorer four seasons running. In 1954 he was in a contract dispute with St Mirren and signed for non-league Worcester City. Once the dispute was resolved he joined Accrington Stanley for £3,000 and became one of the most prolific scorers in the Football League. In four years at Peel Park the nippy striker scored 136 goals in 182 appearances as Stanley had their most successful period ever. The non-smoking teetotaller, George broke all of Stanley’s scoring records including five goals in a 6-2 win over Gateshead in 1954.

After Billy Frith signed him for Coventry in November 1958 he continued scoring and his partnership with Ray Straw helped City out of Division Four at the first attempt. He scored 15 goals in 25 games that season including four in City’s 6-1 win at Carlisle in February 1959 – the club’s biggest post-war away win (We could do with a similar result tomorrow!).

During the 1959-60 season he suffered an injury and lost his place to Ken Satchwell. In 1960 he joined Carlisle before returning to Buckie Thistle a year later. He retired from playing in 1962 and worked as a ship’s chandler and for a local draper in Buckie for many years.

Many words have already been written about City’s tremendous JPT victory over bogey-side Preston. Playing on a Thursday is a very unusual experience for Coventry City. Other than when Boxing Day or New Year’s Day fell on a Thursday, this was the first home game on a Thursday since 1985, and only the fifth time since the war. In 1985 City had a fixture backlog owing to a flu bug around Easter that caused several postponements. City were left needing to win their last three games to avoid relegation and the penultimate game was at home to Luton Town on Thursday 23 May. A late Brian Kilcline goal ensured City’s relegation battle went to the final game, at home to champions Everton on the following Sunday (which they won 4-1). The most famous Thursday game was probably the 2-2 draw with Bristol City in 1977, a result which ensured both clubs avoided relegation at the expense of Sunderland who lost 0-2 at Everton on the same night. Many Sunderland fans still hold a grudge against City and the then chairman, Jimmy Hill, for flashing the Sunderland score on the scoreboard and prompting the teams to stop playing.

Jot Shirley has been in touch regarding the Sky Blue Song. A long-serving City fan, Jot is trying to obtain a copy of the original recording of the song– believed to be by the Ted Heath Orchestra. It was issued as a 45 rpm single in the 1960s but Jot has been unable to trace the song on the internet. If anybody can help Jot, please drop me an email.