Away Went Wendy

Plot

Ann Adams, captain of junior hockey at Highcroft Comprehensive School, had made friends with an unusual new girl; Wendy Layne. Wendy played hockey in startling bursts of energy that made her unstoppable! The energy came on when Wendy combed her long hair.

Notes

  • Art: “B Jackson”

Appeared

  • Away Went Wendy – Mandy: #160 (7 February 1970) – #174 (16 May 1970)

3 thoughts on “Away Went Wendy

  1. I remember this series! Wasn’t there a storyline where Wendy used lemonade to rinse some sticky substance from her hair? Glue? Had the writer been watching A Canterbury Tale? I seem to remember being puzzled because lemonade is a sticky substance in itself …

  2. Away Went Wendy ran in MANDY from 160 (Feb. 7 1970) – 174 (May 16 1970). The story, even the concept, is based firmly on the football serial Away Went Kelly, which appeared in the boys’ story paper THE WIZARD in 1957. Kelly’s amazing improvement is attributed to experimenting with a meditation technique learned in the East during his National Service. For five minutes in each game he runs rings round the opposition. A further influence is The Goal Maker from 1948/49, also in THE WIZARD, because like Wendy Layne, the incredible Pickford lived in a gipsy caravan. The lemonade episode, Jane, is in issue 164 (Mar. 7 1970). In a personal grooming lesson, Monsieur Gaston, a visiting hairdresser, insists on demonstrating on Wendy’s long hair, and sets it with lacquer. She can’t then comb it properly, which would seem to be a pity because after school that day Miss Harker, a county selector turns up to watch Wendy in a school match in order to decide whether she is good enough to go forward to a county trial. In the first half Wendy plays poorly but at half time Wendy takes a bottle of iced lemonade without permission from Miss Harker and pours it onto her hair. When Wendy has shaken it out she plays as well as ever but unfortunately Miss Harker has gone off in a huff so doesn’t see Wendy’s improved performance in the second half. After the match, Wendy’s sole concern is getting some replacement lemonade for Miss Harker, rather than brooding over having probably lost her chance of a county trial.

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