Pics from inside the stadium for our in-bowl activity
It was a busy afternoon when we hosted Coventry City on Saturday - we had a lot going on inside the stadium bowl for our fans to get involved in.
We had plenty of ex-players on site from all eras – not everyone that was due to come to our originally planned celebrations against Luton was able to make it, but we gave a Royal welcome to the boardroom to record-appearance maker Martin Hicks, alongside promotion-winners and former stars Jem Karacan, Lawrie Sanchez, Simon Church, Steve Hetzke, Wayne Wanklyn, Mark White, Paul Miles and Steve Wood, while Brian Howard was a special guest interviewee in Club 106 hospitality. Ady Williams was in our hospality suites too, with Glen Little and Mick Gooding on commentary duty, Mike Kearney, Bobby Williams, Mike Travers and Gary Westwood were amongst the crowd and promotion winners Nicky Shorey and Mikele Leigertwood were both on site at a star-studded occasion.
Before the game, Joshua Ashworth – a member of our Young Royals supporters group – was the lucky winner who was given the opportunity to deliver the match ball to the centre circle. Members of Friends of the Elderly, a programme run through our Community Trust, formed the guard of honour to welcome the teams; our 11 mascots escorted our players onto the pitch. And that was all after we’d spent a few minutes remembering those supporters who we’d lost over the years with a special big-screen video.
Royals record-appearance holder Hicks was invited down pitchside at half-time… from one record holder to another, he presented Academy player and double world-record holder Jack Lewis with his certificate, for his recent achievements!
Kingsley and Queensley were back in the ground too, alongside new arrival Princeley, and they helped to fire shirts into the crowd using the Master Blaster. And Papa John’s, who usually provide pizzas to just one Lucky Row, quadrupled their offering for this game and there was a winning row in each of the four stands this time – a slice of nice on each side of the stadium.
And we know full well that the next generation is vital – as we celebrated 150 years of being Royal, we had representation from 150 sports clubs and primary schools from the local area on site! Attendees from Berkshire Youth were also invited to take part in half-time penalties, and two children who had taken part in the schools and grassroots ticketing scheme were selected at random to win signed shirts.
A number of winners of our £1,000 cash prize giveaway were also invited down to collect their giant cheques, too. Congratulations to Daniel Bardon, Natalie Wallace, Jeffrey Todd, Paul Jameson, Oliver Thomas, Shaun Rush, Jonathan Davies, Lewis Williams, Bojan Soldat, Peter Symonds, Philip Sweetman, Ann Forrest, Helen Roberts, Oliver Stone, Monica Stevens, George Austin and a number of others who won the big money prize at the weekend. All the winners have now been informed and some were pitchside to collect their cheques!
Thank you to all who attended – have a browse through our gallery of events from the day, above!
You can also take a look through our around-the-ground gallery from all the events that took place outside the stadium bowl in the build-up to kick-off - click the button below.
Gallery | Anniversary activities from around the ground…
