Coventry Bears

Coventry Bears RLFC are a semi-professional rugby league club based in Coventry, England, formed in 1998. They have a proud history pioneering rugby league in the Midlands, their major honours include winning the National League 3 title in 2004 (now called Rugby League Conference National Division) and the Rugby League Conference in 2002.

They play at the Butts Park Arena, and run two open-age sides as well as a women's team and a selection of youth teams.

History

Coventry Bears were formed in 1998 by a group of university students led by Alan Robinson. They made an approach to Keith Fairbrother, the Coventry rugby union club’s Chairman and one time rugby league player, with a plan to form a team to play from Coundon Road Stadium.

The club were admitted into the Rugby League Conference for the 2000 season and were unbeaten by any club within their division. They then won their quarter-final against Manchester Knights before being narrowly defeated by only one point in the semi-finals at Super League club Warrington Wolves’ Wilderspool Stadium. Further success followed in 2001 with the Bears reaching the Grand Final at Webb Ellis Road, Rugby, only to lose out by a very narrow margin in a match against Teesside Steelers. The following season Coventry won the Rugby League Conference Grand Final in September 2002 when they beat Hemel Stags at Cheltenham. Following on from this success the club applied for, and won, elevation to the newly formed National League Three.

Coventry

Coventry (ⁱ/ˈkɒvəntri/) is a city and metropolitan borough in the centre of England. It was the capital of England more than once in the 15th century when the seat of Government was held in Coventry. Coventry's heritage includes the Roman Fort at Baginton, Lady Godiva, St Mary's Guildhall (where kings and queens were entertained) and three cathedrals.

Coventry is located in the county of West Midlands but is historically part of Warwickshire. Coventry is the 10th largest city in England and the 13th largest UK city overall. It is also the second largest city in the West Midlands region, after Birmingham, with a population of 337,400 in 2014.

Coventry is situated 95 miles (153 km) northwest of central London, 19 miles (31 km) east-south-east of Birmingham, 24 miles (39 km) southwest of Leicester and 11 miles (18 km) north of Warwick. Although harbouring a population of more than a third-of-a-million inhabitants, Coventry is not amongst the English Core Cities Group due to its proximity to Birmingham. Approximately half a million people live within 10 miles (16 km) of Coventry city centre.

Coventry, Vermont

Coventry /ˈkɒvəntri/ is a town in Orleans County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,086 at the 2010 census.

Local government

A waste system company paid the town about $800,000 in "tipping fees" in 2009. This allows the town property tax rate to be zero. However, the town still pays school taxes.

Town

School District

History

Etymology

Town was named for the birthplace of one of the founders, Major Elias Buel, who was born in Coventry, Connecticut.

Post bellum

A record exists from 1860, showing that the "Artillery Company" of the 3rd Regiment mustered for annual drill on June 5. An inventory shows they possessed one six pound brass cannon.

In 1861, the 3rd Vermont Infantry, Company B, was recruited in part from Coventry.

Coventry Festival

In 2004, what was billed as the final concert of the band Phish was held in Coventry on August 14–15. The concert was the single largest gathering of people in the town's history. Some fans had to be turned back due to heavy rains. Even so, with 65,000 attendees Coventry's augmented population was the largest in the state at that time, outranking Burlington, Vermont, which had around 39,000 people in the 2000 census.

Coventry (comics)

Coventry is an unfinished Fantagraphics comic book series by Bill Willingham. Coventry is a fictitious state in an alternate history version of the United States of America in which magical and legendary powers, creatures, villains and heroes are real and a part of everyday life. Coventry ran for only 3 issues, from November 1996 to July 1997. Two short novels set in the same universe, detailing the exploits of the legendary hero Beowulf, were written by Willingham and published by Clockwork Storybook in 2002.

The Coventry comics and the following novels have been praised by critics as "a delicious blend of horror, offbeat humor, great characters and cat-and-mouse plotting" and "sharp, stark and needle-point powerful".

Coventry may have served as a prototype for Willingham's later series, Fables (published by DC Comics, under the Vertigo imprint), which deals with various characters from fairy tales and folklore who have been forced out of their Homelands by a mysterious enemy known as the Adversary.