Eoin Butler: writer, journalist and Mayoman of the Year
Tripping Along The Ledge
Blog
“The ref’s looking at his watch! This must be our last chance!”
This evening I finally picked up the copy of The Best of Roy of the Rovers I’d ordered in Hodges Figgis. (It’s not for me, you understand. It’s a present for a small boy that I, er, met on the Luas…) Rereading these stories as an adult, you do tend to notice certain peculiarities you might have missed as a child.
For example: the suspicious amount exposition volunteered by anonymous Melchester Rovers supporters at crucial points in their games. In his introduction to the collection, Frank Skinner writes:
How I would have loved to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with those Melchester fans as they shouted things like “There’s 32 seconds left on the clock and Race has broken through on the right. He’s drawing back his foot to shoot. If he misses this, Melchester will be relegated and the future of the club will be in doubt.” All I ever shout at football matches is “Come on!” There will never be another Racey. May his Rocket never splutter and fall.
February 9th, 2011 at 12:35 pm
I was a Dandy man all the way
February 10th, 2011 at 12:05 pm
Roy was sadly ever so slightly before my time. But Ball-Boy out of the Beano, now there was a silky skilled blonde bomber!
February 10th, 2011 at 2:14 pm
@ Dermot – Tbh it was before my time too. But in the early 1990s, they used to publish monthly collections of old stories from the 1970s and I got into it that way.
Btw how’s everything with you? Are you still over in… you know where?
February 10th, 2011 at 4:50 pm
Is that the same comic that had Billys Boots in it? That was a fucking weird story when I think about it now.
February 11th, 2011 at 9:12 am
I am indeed, although a shirtless Sly is yet to make an appearance (gutted!). Dropped you a mail there.
Over in France there’s a Animé series about kid footballers, some exciting set plays. Next generation, a Dieu Roy, a Dieu.