There is no pain, you are receding
A distant ship, smoke on the horizon
You are only coming through in waves
Your lips move, but I can't hear what you're saying
I have become comfortably numb
Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd
So, I've pre-ordered my limited edition 150th Anniversary shirt.
The decision to put my name down for one lies not in the merits of the shirt itself, in fact for me it's well down the list headed 'most appealing Cov rugby shirts of the last few seasons', but rather in the message contained in the video accompanying its launch.
In recent months Coventry Rugby has excelled in reaching out to its supporters, and to the wider rugby community as well, through its various social media/media outlets (hats off to Dan Lewis once again).
The club's latest offering, in this case a post to showcase the new shirt, is an absolute winner, highlighting as it does the contiguity between the club and the city of Coventry not just on a geographical level, but on a spiritual and emotional one too.
It successfully spotlights the connection between a city that 'always finds a way to give back' despite the difficulties it has faced in the past and a club that is dedicated to 'giving its all to the community'.
The montage of clips and images covering some 80 plus years is evocative of so many memories to anyone connected with either the club or the city and its wider community or, indeed, to anyone who has a wider interest in English club rugby generally.
And the decision to involve Jo Hill was inspired.
Jo is local girl who has dedicated so much of her working life to the club; someone who seems to be a part of the very fabric of the stadium itself. She's at the very heart of what the 150th anniversary celebrations are about, a Coventrian committed to the club, its supporters and indeed the city, too, no matter what.
Anyone who even vaguely knows Jo, and I would count myself in that group, and the work she does on the behalf of the club and us as supporters accepts without hesitation that she is indeed a 'true blue', so when she turns to the camera and asks 'Are you?', then it's well nigh impossible to say no.
Jo personifies that link between club and city and her commentary is what makes the video so emotive.
It's that that did it for me. Nothing to do with the shirt in all honesty but everything to do with my allegiance to the club. I'm sure that I'm not the only one for whom the club has been a support, a real rock, in difficult times - watching the video and listening to Jo reminded me of that.
As it bought back memories of the the club's bygone days, so it reminded me of the highs (and lows) of my own past, the loves and losses.
For me, then, buying the shirt has little to do with its look and everything to do with simply being able to support the club in its continuing journey.
Without that video would I have put in an order?
Very unlikely.
Usually I'll buy a new home or away shirt at the start of the season but this year I decided to stay with last season's and wait for the 150th anniversary one as it's a one off and all the more special for that reason. To be honest, purely on the design of the two shirts, I wish I'd gone with the 2023 home shirt having seen this one. I'm sure many will be far more taken with it than I am, but personally I'd hoped for a shirt that somehow incorporated past traditions with current trends. I'd hoped for something that was immediately recognisable as representing Coventry Rugby.
White and blue hoops for starters and a badge that was easily identifiable.
In short, something that shouts out Cov.
This one doesn't. Not to me. If you've not seen it before, you'd be hard pressed to link it to Cov from any distance other than close up.
That's not to say that the shirt hasn't got a look to it, it has, just not a particularly 'Cov look' that's all. For me anyway.
In fairness, it does have a fairly striking resemblance to the 2002/03 shirt, as modelled by Zinzan above, but that was itself atypical of its time anyway. I ended up quite lacking it after some initial hesitancy, so perhaps this one will grow on me too.
I kind of get why the shirt is predominately all blue, fitting in as it does with the 'true blue' tagline the club seems keen to promote, but it's hardly redolent of the club's past traditions which have pretty much been based on blue and white hoops. Cov in the post-war past has always been 'the blue 'n whites' and rarely, if ever, the just the 'blues' .
And what is it with gold badges these days? Yes, it's an anniversary shirt and the Cov badge may have had a couple of transformations, but this version against a dark blue background isn't nearly as striking.
A monotone badge comes across as rather passive and uninspiring, to me anyway.
It's a decent looking shirt but I have to say it's not one I would have been inclined to purchase other than for the reasons outlined above. I'm sure the club will have done its market research and be confident its what most supporters will like. For me though, first impressions aren't anything more than being a little 'non-plussed'...
...I'm sort of comfortably numb.
I remember there being some kickback when the club decided to change the club badge to the current format probably 7 or 8 years ago now. At the time, it seemed a strange decision and the traditionalists amongst Cov supporters back then weren't overly enamoured with the decision (although in fairness I actually liked it ). The club took to the website to explain the reasons behind the move and any uncertainty was quickly dispelled. Granted this is nothing as symbolic but it would be interesting to know the reasons for the choice of design.
Still, as I said at the start, I've pre-ordered the shirt and I'm happy to pay the £60, not for the shirt in this instance but to support the club.
At least I feel that I've contributed to the 150th anniversary celebrations now. I must say it hasn't really felt like being in any way a special season up to this point. I know there have been a couple of events/promotions already but they seem to have been aimed at a very different audience to the average Coventry Rugby punter. I guess that 2024 is when the real celebrations will be marked, so perhaps I'm jumping the gun a little here.
The recent dinner to mark the start of the celebrations, by all accounts a roaring success, was never going to be something I'd get involved in as I'd be too far out of my comfort zone and the 150 Legacy Club is well out of my reach. Whatever the benefits of signing up for it, at £1500 at pop it's not for everyone, that's for sure.
The philosophy behind it's inception, the leaving of a legacy to the the Warwickshire and Coventry communities, is a excellent one and hopefully they'll be plenty of opportunities for the rest of us to get involved later on in the season so that we, too, can do our own little bit for Coventry and the local communities therein.
The club's website suggests the Legacy Club will generate 'plenty of interest and support from not just from the club’s current fan base...'; if that is the case then the club is very lucky indeed to have so many financially empowered supporters in such difficult times. (I keep getting an image of something akin to the Bullingdon Club for the privileged few flashing through my head - something I could well do without. I trust there won't be a pig's head on the menu at any point. :) )
I'm hoping that before too long there will be further initiatives that the average supporter can get involved in. Yes, there's the shirt launch but so far little else. I know there was mention of the possibility of a fixture against the Barbarians which would be a fantastic opportunity for several thousand Cov supporters to come together and celebrate the club's sesquicentennial, so there's hopefully that to look forward to and I guess there will be a couple of other games announced in due course.
Whilst I'm not going to be able to find the £1500 needed to become a member of the Legacy Club, I am looking forward to being able to make the odd contribution myself. There must be loads of things that could be spread over a range of prices to attract a lot of interest - £50 to have a ball signed by the squad (plus the cost of the ball - maybe a limited edition Cov one), or £30 for a signed squad photo, or the auctioning off of last season's kit or this season's used shirts in April, or buying a space in the car park for the rest of the season on a match day (yes please if it avoids having to use those bloody ticket machines), and so on.
Harlequins have come up with the brilliant idea of official club trading cards available on match days similar to the ones we used to collect as kids - how cool is that? With a much smaller support base that wouldn't work for Cov, but you could do something similar to create a Top Trumps sort of game on a smaller scale or a match day bingo that runs over the rest of the season (a number of assorted cards with the names of 15 different players on each, every time a player scores a try you cross off their name if they're on your card - in fact I might patent that one).
With the kind of interest apparently being shown in the Legacy Club, a couple of similar sized donations put into a fund for a year long raffle with a big prize or two could attract a lot of interest - having seen how much the Supporters' Club can raise on a raffle for a bottle of plonk and a box of choccies on an away day, this could be a real winner and for next to no outlay from the club. It would certainly raise far more than any costs incurred by the club in setting it up, if funded through donations.
Sorry - I'm getting carried away here.
150 years is a long, long time and quite rightly deserves to be celebrated by as many of the Cov faithful as possible. With Cov proving to be successful both on and off the pitch these days, there will be hopefully be plenty of supporters willing to get involved in the festivities.
It should be one heck of a party.
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