Bailey Mends Broken Men

Bailey Mends Broken Men was a serial which ran in the pages of DC Thomson's weekly anthology title Wizard in 1973. Len Brown, the young centre half of Grangeford Rovers F.C, sustained a serious ankle injury which seemed set to end his footballing career. The only man who could possibly help was reputed to be Sir Nigel Lane, an eminent surgeon, but Lane was reported killed in a car accident. Then, the mystery man who called himself Bailey turned up, and began treating Len in his own unorthodox way, promising to return him to full fitness (and, along the way, helping another player with a potentially serious spinal injury). In the end, of course, Bailey was revealed to be Sir Nigel Lane himself, who had survived an attempt on his life but temporarily lost his memory. The dastardly foreigners who wanted him out of the way were trying to prevent him from saving the life of Britain's most brilliant electronics expert, but 'Bailey' came through, saving both Sir Chandos Waring's life (and, potentially, Britain's defence secrets) and Len Brown's career, before accepting the honorary post of Grangeford's medical officer. Typically, there seemed little doubt as to what Sir Nige considered the more notable achievement!