IT has been on the cards for some time...Highmoor Ibis changing their name to Reading City.

Around five years ago, in the days of Reading Town, there were discussions among officials and Roland Ford’s club even registered a domain with Reading City in the title.

Not too long afterwards, Martin Law, chairman of Highmoor Ibis, also saw a future for the same title at a time when the Borough Council were applying for city status, but their application was rejected for the third time.

So Reading remains a town, but in football terms they now boast a city, with a team playing in the Hellenic League.

The title has raised a few eyebrows, but you don’t have to be a city in order to put that in the title.

Looking at other towns, there’s Guildford City in the Combined Counties League Premier Division and Brechin City are members of the Scottish Championship.

The change of name, along with the arrival of new joint managers Andy Findlay and Rob Creech, has certainly given the Scours Lane club a major boost in terms of publicity and receiving mentions, mostly favourable, across the non-league and social-media sights.

  • ONE familiar face closely associated with the old Highmoor Ibis club for many years has been missing recently.

Peter Parker has not been in the best of health and I wish him well.

He has also been missed by regular customers at the Oxfam shop in Reading, where he is a voluntary worker.

  • STAN Bembenek, who was chairman of the now-defunct Reading Royals, has returned to women’s football at Sandhurst FC, taking charge of the section.

They will be playing in the Southern Region League’s First Division North next season, while last season's champions, Woodley United have been promoted to the Premier.

The league’s long-serving secretary, Jackie Batten, was recently honoured with the Unsung Hero Award by the FA.

She spent 20 years at Ibis-based Reading Ladies FC from 1989 as a player before becoming club secretary. No-one has ever done more to promote women’s football in Reading than Jackie and Stan.