Roy of the Rovers - British Comic

In the window of the charity shop I spied a small pile of Roy of the Rovers comics priced a tad on the high side but it got my memory juices flowing. I was not an avid reader of the comic but if it was there in front of me and if the story interested me; I would part with the odd pennies to acquire a copy.

Roy of the Rovers started as a comic strip in the Tiger comic before being turned into a standalone comic about the life and times of a fictional footballer named Roy Race, who played for Melchester Rovers. The name Melchester was just too close to Manchester and add United you have the first football team I hated and even before I became a football fan and yes, I still hate them.

During his career Roy played for England but never in a major tournament owing to injury but he racked up a few trophies during his career with Rovers, including nine league titles, eight FA Cups, three League Cups, three European Cups, one UEFA Cup, and four Cup Winners' Cups not a bad haul. He also tried his hand at other sports, Cricket, and even American football not soccer their version of rugby.

There may have been success but there were relegation battles and troubles off the field. An earthquake hit Melchester during a game and there has been some other creative storylines over the years. One being the team’s disappearance in the depths of the South American jungle in 1960 when their aircraft was shot down by rebel forces fighting a bloody civil war.

An extraordinary case of Deja-vu when a few years later Rovers were captured by bandits near Bogota in Columbia, only to later escape on horseback. There was more drama when a disgruntled actor who played Roy in a TV drama gunned down Roy, then Melchester player-manager at the time, in his own office. A kin to who shot J. R. Ewing in Dallas as Roy lay in a coma for several weeks.

The collapse of Roy’s marriage to Penny Laine reached out of the comic to mainstream media in the early eighties and a fall out with the Melchester board saw him move to rivals Walford Rovers but he was soon back at Melchester. Another tragedy to be fall Roy and Melchester was when eight squad members killed by terrorists in war-torn Basran in the late eighties when terrorists accidentally crashed a bomb-laden car into the team bus. Roy escaped with a dislocated shoulder.

Roy’s retirement from Melchester was broadcast live on Sky Sports News in 1992 after he was involved in a helicopter crash, which finally saw his famous left foot amputated ending his 40-year playing career.

Only today, I was reading about the ‘Roy of the Rovers’ stuff at Accrington who against the odds could be promoted this season. They are one of the poorest supported clubs in the football League with the smallest budgets.