Jim's column 25.4.15

Trevor Lewis (6.1.1921- 12.4.2015)

Two weeks after the death of his great friend, Ken Jones, another former Coventry City player, Trevor Lewis has passed away, aged 94.

Welshman Trevor was born in Bedwelty, near Blackwood in South Wales, the eldest of 12 children. As a teenager he moved to Birmingham for work & early in the war was joined by several members of his family in Shirley. Trevor joined the Fleet Air Arm in late 1941 & was at sea, mainly on the aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious, seeing service in the Mediterranean & the Pacific during the hostilities. He was awarded a number of medals including the Burma Star.

Trevor lost the best years of his playing career to the war & returned to 'civvy street' in the summer of 1946. He played local football for Catherine-de-Barnes near Solihull & progressed to Redditch Town where, in early1948, Trevor, now 27-years old, was spotted by a Coventry City scout and signed a professional contract.

A speedy forward who stood only 5 foot 6 ½ inches, and, according to his surviving brother Wilfred, was nicknamed 'Legger 'Lewis', because of his speed. He was also an excellent crosser of the ball in the days when all teams played a tall centre-forward.

Billy Frith was the manager when Trevor arrived at Highfield Road in January 1948 & gave him his first team debut in a 1-1 away draw with Sheffield Wednesday. The Coventry Telegraph match report was impressed:

Billy Frith had several reasons for being satisfied with City's display, not the least of these being the success of young Trevor Lewis, making his debut within a few weeks of leaving Birmingham Combination club, Redditch. The extraordinary feature – and perhaps the most satisfactory – of Lewis's display was the fact that he was included in the side at outside right when he is considered to be an inside-forward. As a right-winger he was in the middle of things all the time. He never tired, always disputed a Wednesday's player possession of the ball and might have scored a goal. Then, when injuries caused the City attack to be reshuffled, and he went inside-right, his brilliance faded. Nevertheless it was a most creditable performance.

A week later he appeared on the right wing in another 1-1, at home to Tottenham. His third & final game that season was at Millwall, where the Bantams got a 6-2 thumping from the already relegated home side. Trevor's switch to the right-wing became permanent but it was almost two years before Trevor played for the first team again, when he deputised for the injured Warner in two Christmas games against Leicester. Relegation clouds were gathering around new manager Harry Storer's team & the Foxes did the festive double, 1-0 at Filbert Street & 2-1 at Highfield Road. Two more games in March took his total for the season to four. City rallied after Christmas & finished seventh. Trevor could never cement a first team place owing to the form of legendary winger 'Plum' Warner and played only eleven first games in five years at the club. Amazingly he never appeared on the winning side but was a regular for the reserves throughout the period.

                                           1951-52 squad with Trevor second from right in middle row

It was almost another two years before his next opportunity - in the 1951-52 relegation season. Then he played three early season games before his last appearance in September 1952 in a 1-1 draw with Northampton. In January 1953, now aged 31, having played just 11 games in five years, he signed for Gillingham, another Third Division side. At Priestfield he went straight into the first team, playing 17 games that season. The following campaign he played seven games, including a return to Highfield Road where the Gills held City to a 1-1 draw, and scored in first league goal in a 3-3 draw at Torquay. In 1954-55 he played just two games as his professional career came to an end. In his final game he netted the team's goal in a 1-1 draw with Exeter.

Trevor moved back to the Midlands & played non-league football with Kidderminster Harriers, Banbury Spencer, Rugby Town and finally Bedworth Town in 1956-57 season. He went to work for Jaguar at Browns Lane, where he was a 'floater' on the production line, using his skills wherever they were needed on the production line. He earned a long-service watch from Jaguar & retired in the 1980s. He continued living in Coventry and was a member of the Former Players Association, attending the first Legends Day in 2007. At the time of his death he was the second oldest former City player, behind Colin Collindridge.

Trevor's funeral takes place on Friday (1^st May) at 11.15 at Canley Crematorium. The family would prefer no flowers but donations to the Macmillan Trust can be made via the funeral directors, Henry Ison & Co, 76-78 Binley Road, Coventry CV3 1FQ.

Jim's column 5.10.13

Chris Lambert was in contact with me regarding a rare Coventry City programme he has recently acquired & asking for some details behind the game. It was for a friendly game played in 1935 at Highfield Road between City & Austria Vienna. The programme is just four pages with the teams on the inside along with

Since the Canadian club Hillhurst in 1911, no foreign team had visited Highfield Road, but in the summer of 1935 City were approached by Austria Vienna regarding an autumn tour of England. At the time, the Austrian national ‘Wunderteam’, managed by the legendary Hugo Meisl, was recognised as one of the strongest in the world and had reached the World Cup semi-finals the previous year. Several of the

Wunderteam played for Austria Vienna, including Matthias Sindelar, a tall, thin, pale, blond centre-forward nicknamed ‘the man of paper’, who compensated for his fragility with superb technique. He is considered one of the greatest Austrian footballers of all time and in the modern game would have been a highly paid superstar. In 2006 Brian Glanville placed him in his top twenty all-time world stars.

Such a ‘big-name’ team wanted to be paid for their services and a fee of £150 was agreed upon. The game was scheduled for a Thursday afternoon (2.15 kick-off) in early December but the previous Saturday City were surprisingly held to a draw in the FA Cup by non-league Scunthorpe United and the replay was to be played on the Thursday. As City’s first team headed north for the replay manager Harry Storer selected a reserve side to face the Austrians at Highfield Road. The game at Scunthorpe was called off because of bad weather but in Coventry the game went ahead. Even with Sindelar in the team (few City supporters would have heard of him) only 3,000 turned out to see City reserves win 4-2. with goals from Fred Liddle (2), Billy Lake & John Watson. Press reports describe the City and Vienna teams exchanging ‘beautiful banners’.

Sindelar’s impact on the small crowd went unreported, but two years later – after the German invasion of Austria and the Anschluss – his career was thrown into crisis. He refused to play for a ‘greater’ Germany

team in the 1938 World Cup and in 1939 mysteriously died in a gas-filled room. But in May 1936, six of the Vienna side who appeared at Highfield Road were in the Austrian team that defeated England 2-1 in Vienna.

Graham Williams asked me if I could provide some details about the career of former City player Trevor Lewis who recently took a bow at the Legends Charity match at the Ricoh Arena. Trevor was born in 1921 (making him 93 years old) in a small town called Bedwelty in South Wales. He was 27-years old when he was spotted by City playing for Redditch Town. A speedy right winger who could get a good cross in, Trevor made his City debut in a 1-1 draw at Hillsborough in April 1948. Trevor however could never cement a first team place owing to the form of Plum Warner and Dennis Simpson and played only eleven games in five years. His final game was in a 1-1 draw with Northampton in September 1953. Amazingly he never appeared on the winning side but was a regular for the reserves throughout the period. In 1953 he joined Gillingham and played 26 games and scored two goals in three seasons before moving in to non-league football with Kidderminster Harriers, Banbury Spencer and Rugby Town.

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Thanks to Mike Young for the photo from 1935.