John Williams, David Busst and Andy Blair were amongst the guests as the Coventry City Diamond Club celebrated their 20th anniversary with a lunch in the Legends Lounge at the Ricoh Arena.
The lunch attended by two hundred members of the City supporters club for those, who have fifty years or more supporting the Sky Blues and guests, saw Treasurer Maureen O’Neill, who along with Joe Elliott, joined the Committee twenty years ago, presented with some flowers by Chairman Tom Dentith.
The Diamond Club is known for its guest speakers and the lunch started with Quentin from the G-Casino talking about the leisure complex which is not all about gambling and admitting that although they missed the buzz of a matchday, they were proud of their association with the Diamond Club and the Coventry City Former Players Association who were well represented with Secretary Mike Young and Committee Member Frank Pritchard along with the likes of Ronnie Farmer, Brian Nicholas and Dietmar Bruck.
During an excellent lunch, superbly delivered by Mark O’Shea and his team, Committee Member Ray Stephens spoke about his meeting with Joy Seppala, before “The Flying Postman” John Williams spoke to Joe Elliott about his time at the Sky Blues, which covered 88 league games before he was sold to Wycombe Wanderers.
Williams, who now works with kids in care and also works in sports management with Darryl Powell, spoke about his injury picked up during the Masters Tournament in June 2011, which saw jarred muscles in his knee, which later became infected. John is still on the road to recovery and won’t play football at any level ever again.
One of John’s team mates from his time at City was David Busst. Now, the joint CEO for Sky Blues In The Community, Bussty, spoke about some of the varied programmes that SBITC runs including ones that give people a chance of a better life through education, health and inclusion.
Bussty was signed in 1992 but did not make his debut until January 1993 when Bobby Gould gave him his chance.
The members and guests were treated to the words of another former player in Andy Blair, who admitted to standing on a stool at Highfield Road and watching the team he supported, so his debut for City against Birmingham City on October 28th 1978 was his greatest football moment.
Blair, whose son Matty plays for Fleetwood, also thanked the Former Players Association for what they do for the City Old Boys, before some of those present shared their memories of the last twenty years.
Coventry City Former Players Association Committee Member Billy Bell,.a regular Diamond Club attendee, now working at Coventry Rugby Club, then entertained those present with his usual brand of jokes and songs before an auction for a signed Keith Houchen picture fetched £75 and the bingo and raffle completed another enjoyable afternoon for some of our more City supporters.
Pictures courtesy and copyright of Pete Chambers.