For those who were at The Arena this weekend for the official naming ceremony should be proud of the first team who stepped out to play the Ricoh All Stars in a 70 minute match to kick off a 'Made in Coventry' day of celebrations that featured over 1000 actors, dancers, exhibitors and over 10,000 visitors. Over 1,400 watched that game that eventually went to penalties and saw the All Stars win 3 - 4. Another record crowd for Coventry City Ladies, but not to mention the new fans of Ladies fotoball and the many senior figure heads from the City and Dame Kelly Holmes who were invited to watch. Sir Derek Higgs was very impressed with the game, as were executives of Ricoh who took custody of Ricoh Cup for their annual sporting activity. For those who gathered in the Legends Lounge for a VIP lunch with the players and officials they will have heard how pleased Daniel Gidney, CEO of the Ricoh Arena was. For the cynics who had gathered expecting a one sided game against eight of the best England Internationals, our girls put up a really impressive performance…and that was after Lippo's 18th birthday celebrations the night before!
We were all delighted that Stacey Doughty was judged Player of the Match by Nigel Palmer, Chief Executive of Ricoh UK. It was her debut for the first team and just underlines the talent that is coming through the Centre of Exellence.
For the 40 mascots and numerous ball girls, who helped Dame Kelly lead the team out they were model professionals, and now know what it will be like to run out as players when they are old enough! Thanks to the Ann and Denise who did a fantastic job making them look great lining up in the tunnel and then in the centre of the pitch!
David Singleton presented a framed shirt signed by players that morning (shirt kindly donated by www.4clubandcountry.com) to Daniel Gidney and his team as a momento of the day in thanks for giving us the opportunity to play at The Ricoh. This will be on display in the www.arenacoventry.com office.
At a gala dinner the previous night, attended by Sir Trevor Brooking, Mickey Moore, Rachel Yankee, Natasha Dowie and Nao Yamada, Trevor was able to get a first hand insight to Coventry Ladies and how we're doing our best to strive for the Premiership, develop talent at grassroot and first team level. He was delighted that we were chosen to participate in this huge event and in his speech wished the girls well.
Our thanks for making the day possible go to Mickey Moore and Michelle Hickmott. Mickey managed the All Stars and assembled a fine team of players. Our thanks also to their parent clubs who were great to release them to play, albeit for a limited period. England and Arsenal captain Rachel Yankee MBE was delighted to take part but dissapointed she was only allowed to play for a short time. Iain Dowie's neice and star at Charlton and England was delighted to be draughted in when Iain signed for Coventry City FC and the Loughborough scholar has promised to come and run some coaching sessions with the girls when time allows. Michelle ensured that the All Stars were orgainsed and was a great help to Mickey in ensuring the players knew exactly what was needed, how to get to Coventry etc. Coventry City Ladies manager Stuart Wilson was praised for his efforts for producing some great football on the pitch which should be shared with his coach Neil Wilson.
We have some autographed momentoes of the day, calenders, two signed footballs and some signed shirts. We will auction / raffle them to raise club funds to support our drive and eventual stability in the Premiership when we get there. We also have one framed shirt with all the autographs on which we hope we can get auctioned at the Player of the Year night on 9th May at The Ricoh Arena. This will be the first time the Ladies award has been presented at the men's event. If you would like to be there, e-mail raj@ccfc.co.uk.
There are many people who helped make February 24th possible, many, many thanks to all of you! Monday's Coventry Telegraph will have an eight page pull out of the day which should feature pictures from the many photographers who were there.
Coventry City Ladies FC have now played twice at The Arena, and we hope it's not going to be the last for a long time! Coventry City FC and ACL (the people who own the Arena) are now big fans of Coventry City Ladies! Our job is to continue what we already do. We have a really fantastic club that is catching the imagination of the City and the wider world of Ladies football. The first team have a huge game on March 11th against top of the table Rotherham. We need to win this game to really make our final puch for the top spot. Let's get 'rent-a-crowd' there to cheer the girls on and win!