Writer:- The Victor editorial team. Artist:- Bert Vandeput, unless otherwise stated.

Main cast:- Earl of Boote, Gorgeous Gus; Jenkins, his butler; Sam Hopkins, manager of Redburn Rovers.

Time period:- early 1960's.

Note - these stories originally appeared as text stories in the D.C. Thomson boysWizard comic.

The manager of Redburn Rovers, Sam Hopkins is at his wit’s end. Rovers are firmly anchored at the bottom of the First Division. Hopkins has tried everything to motivate and lift morale. But with no success. He’s in total despair, when suddenly he finds a butler called Jenkins standing in front of him telling him that his master, Earl of Boote has just purchased the club. He is then given some instructions to carry out. Hopkins at first sees this as a practical joke on someone’s part, is ready to throw the butler out of his office. However, Jenkins is telling the truth. Read the first episode from issue 29 below.

Earl of Boote is a rich man with a passion for football. Gorgeous Gus as the Rovers fans have nicknamed him possesses the hardest shot in football. The power of his shots is enough to knock a goalkeeper clean off his feet backwards into his own net. He’s also an eccentric player and person. He insists that all footballs are played directly to his feet and if they aren’t he will not move to intercept the ball. As a rule he scores two goals and then substitutes himself to rest in his own small pavilion on the touch-line.

Readers who haven’t met Earl of Boote before, maybe under the impression that he is a bit of a pompous character. But there is much more to the Earl of Boote than this. A stauch defender of footballing values, he is for example, prepared to prevent players who consistently play dirty tackles that could cause serious injuries from taking part in playing professional football. Earl of Boote backed by a large personal fortune (that is, having plenty of money), has the necessary clout to be able to make things happen quickly.

The following adventures of Gorgerous Gus from the first picture series are from issues 33, 35 and 36.

The second series follows Earl of Boote and Rovers progress in the European Cup. Initially, Gorgerous Gus is sceptical of the value of Rovers playing in Europe and refuses to allow his team to play in the competition. The newspapers think otherwise and the Earl of Boote realises his mistake and that it is a matter of national honour and pride that Rovers compete in the competition. Many trials and hurdles are met and overcome in the team’s quest of lifting the covetous trophy.

In one of their away leg matches in Poland, for example, the Redburn Rovers team are arrested when the police mistake Gus's football passing machine as some sort of gun. The police think they are gunrunners. With the team in jail and no hope of their release in time for their away leg match Gus has to resort to inviting some of the fan’s supporters and British Embassy staff to play for Rovers! With a make-shift team Rovers do enough to ensure that they can still win the return leg back in the UK.

The following adventures of Gorgerous Gus and Rovers attempt to win the European Cup are from issues 58, 59, 63 and 66. Further strips and notes will be added to this page when time allows.

The third series involves the Earl of Boote learning that he is heir to a small cold island in the North Sea. In effect he discovers that the island is a separate country and is thus eligible to enter the World Cup. Needless to say the country of [???] reaches the final and their opponents are… England, Who in the real world had yet to win the World Cup. (This series was printed prior to 1966).

The artwork is by Bert Vandeput who produces some stirling work as he did for every strip he drew for the Victor and the Hornet.

© Adrian Banfield, 2010.