Roy Race club he had ever wanted to play for. At sixteen, Roy made his first appearance for Melchester Rovers. This was no ordinary debut. An injury to Rovers regular striker meant that the young apprentice was drafted into the side for the 1959 European Cup final. It was a dream, a fantasy, a fairy tale. Roy twisted and turned his big Spanish marker, leading the line like a man twice his age. With 10 minutes left, and the game goalless, he broke free on the edge of the area and let fly with the shot that made his name: "Racey's Rocket".
Roy of the Rovers mark." The final incident of Roy's playing career came in the closing pages of the last weekly issue, in March 1993, when he lost control of his helicopter and crashed into a field. Thus the weekly strip ended its 39-year unbroken run on a downbeat and unresolved cliffhanger, as Roy was taken into hospital while fans, the media and his family awaited news on his condition. The mystery of whether or not Roy had survived his crash was unresolved until the first issue of the new "Roy of the Rovers Monthly" in September 1993, in which readers discovered that the