What should have been our Boxing Day game when Coventry City visit looking to keep their Play Off challenge going while we finally have some momentum to build on at home. Here’s the normal seven questions on each decade going back to the 60s.
60s. Was this ex Forest, Coventry and Middlesbrough man an electric performer or trying to lose weight?
70s. What is the connection between a Coventry player from this decade, who also played in tangerine during his career, who died before he was fifty, a weekly programme on rural matters and a quiz show called Beat the Brain?
80s. Coventry were, briefly, one of this England international forward’s twenty six clubs in the middle of this decade (Wrexham, for whom he never played a game, was another in the early nineties) and he has also managed international, relatively, new boys, who?
90s. This son of a more famous father probably faced accusations of nepotism when he was given his debut in familiar surroundings in the team his old man was managing. However, he was soon able to earn a move to Coventry for a six figure sum and he played some Premier League football for them without ever suggesting he could break into the team on a regular basis. When he was given a free transfer, he moved to a club that took their exit from this season’s FA Cup in London recently at a stage well beyond where they normally reach and the same can be said for his final Football League club, who have long since lost that status, but did themselves proud in the competition in the Fourth Round – who am I describing?
00s. First man’s star sign?
10s. Reading may lead to Coventry during this decade (4,6).
20s. Extremes of Royalty leasing via Wolverhampton (4,5)!
Answers:
60s. Arthur Lightening was a South African goalkeeper who played over a hundred league games for Coventry and Middlesbrough in the early sixties.
70s. John Craven was a utility player for teams like Blackpool, Palace and Coventry who died of a heart attack in America at the age of forty nine. He shared his name with the TV presenter who was the face behind the TV show Countryfile for many years and was the host of the quiz show Beat the Brain.
80s. Peter Barnes won twenty two England caps and played eighteen games for Coventry in 84/85. He was also manager of Gibraltar for a while in 1998.
90s. Peter Shilton’s son Sam was given a debut for Plymouth by his father who was the manager at Home Park during that time. Coventry paid £125,000 for him in 1995, based on what he had shown in his three appearances at Plymouth and he only had double that number of first team showings in four years with the Midlands club before joining Hartlepool and then Kidderminster where he became a fairly regular first teamer at both clubs.
00s. Adam Virgo.
10s. Gary Madine.
20s. Ryan Giles.