Melchester Rovers Melchester Rovers Melchester Rovers are a fictional football team with whom Roy Race spent most of his illustrious career in the British comic strip "Roy of the Rovers", which first appeared in "Tiger" at its inception in 1954. According to the comic strip's continuity, Melchester Rovers were founded in 1885 winning at least three League Championships and a number of FA Cups during the pre-war years of their existence (three titles in succession and four FA Cup finals in the 1930s). But, according to the Annuals, Melchester Rovers were a third division struggling club in the 1930s, until they gained
Roy of the Rovers edition in "Shoot" magazine, which had in the late 1980s published a parody called Ray of the Rangers. The comic strip was resurrected in July 1997, printed as short (usually two-page) features in the BBC's monthly "Match of the Day" magazine. These strips ran until the magazine's demise in May 2001. By then the strip's wholesome tone, often espousing the virtues of fair play and strong moral character, was beginning to seem old-fashioned. The editor of "Roy of the Rovers" comic, Barrie Tomlinson, has commented that "everyone seemed to be growing up a bit more quickly, and they wanted stories