George Marchant, known as ‘Tich’, was a member of the Townfield Junior School team in 1933-4, which won the Uxbridge & District Schools FA Junior League. He then joined Southall as his first club, but moved to Hayes in the summer of 1938 and was an instant success on either wing or at inside-forward. In two seasons he made 54 appearances and scored 21 goals. He was one of the first Hayes players to join the Forces in March 1940, and did not play again thereafter. He suffered leg wounds in North Africa and was in Harefield Hospital in November 1943. After the war, he returned to Southall and was 2nd team secretary in 1948-9.

Recently we have witnessed quite a few sets of brothers playing for Hayes – the Holsgroves, Joneses, Knights, Leathers and Lethbridges. Lesser known were the Marjoram brothers. RA (Bob) Marjoram, who had played for the Royal Signals during the war, joined Wealdstone on demobilisation in 1946. He worked nearby for HMSO in Headstone Drive. Although he had been playing for Wealdstone at centre-forward, and continued in that position at first when he moved to Hayes in the summer of 1948, it is a curious fact that in 48 appearances over four seasons for the Missioners, he did not score a single goal. Towards the end of his first season, he was converted to centre-half as a replacement for Frank Bridges, when he was not available because of service in the Royal Navy. Indeed, he made most appearances in the 1949-50 season, when the programme regularly carried the selection ‘FA Bridges or RA Marjoram’ beneath the number five position. It was often not known until shortly before kick-off who would play at centre-half. Now about to celebrate his 89th birthday (February 2005), Bob is quoted in the published history of the Wealdstone club (2002) on his time playing for the Stones. Bob’s brother RG (Dick) Marjoram actually played for Hayes ahead of his brother, in the second match of the 1948-9 season, a month before Bob. He was a wing-half, but played only the one season, making eight appearances.

Coming nearer to the present day, Roy Marshall was a defender/midfielder, who joined Hayes from Uxbridge in the summer of 1989 at the age of 26. He had previously played for Hillingdon. He immediately gained county honours for Middlesex and soon proved his versatility, when he played a whole match in goal, after Paul Hyde was injured in the warm-up before a game with Barking. He was to repeat this feat a year later against Wokingham. Elected Player of the Year in 1992-3, he made 162+12 appearances, scoring 15 goals, before Terry Brown released him in November 1994. He was immediately snapped up by Wealdstone.

Back to the pre-war period, Walter Marshall was a centre-half or left-sided full- or half-back, who made his debut in 1926 at the age of 17. Another product of the Clayton Road School, he was described in the Bucks Examiner as ‘tackling neatly and feeding nicely’. But he took his work in the family firm of JH Marshall & Sons, haulage contractors of Chalfont Road, seriously and his appearances for Botwell Mission were limited to 15 over six seasons. When he died at the early age of 53 in June 1961, he was in charge of the firm.

Our next entry, Jack Maskell, is one of the great names in the Hayes annals. Jack, a brother of Dan, the England tennis coach and doyen Wimbledon commentator, joined from Wimbledon in questionable circumstances in 1930, after having played three seasons for Tufnell Park in the Isthmian League. At Wimbledon he approached Mortimer Miller, who held a position of authority at both clubs, and asked if he could use his influence to find him a job – he had already turned down professional terms offered by Brighton because he did not want to lose his amateur status. When Miller fixed him up with a job with the Hayes Cocoa Company (later Nestlé), of which Miller was company secretary, Maskell returned the compliment by signing for Hayes. He was a powerful player, with a long kick, and played mainly at right-back, but also stood in at centre-half or wing-half, when needed. He was a regular member of the team which went all the way to the final of the Amateur Cup in 1931, playing in every match from the 4th qualifying round. He also collected a winner’s medal in Hayes successful assault on the London Senior Cup in 1932. He was selected for Middlesex on many occasions and for the Athenian League side against the RAF in November 1931. He stayed with Hayes for three seasons, making 86 appearances – but he did not score a single goal. Then he went to Southall (1933), and Romford (1934). Next he played for his employers’ team Hayesco, including in an FA Cup preliminary round tie against Hayes in 1936, until the club was disbanded shortly afterwards. At this point he turned out for Hayes again for a final seven times, when they were short of players, at the age of 35. During the early wars years he turned out for Hayes Wasps. But that was not the end of the story. In 1937 he started playing cricket for West Drayton CC and continued playing into his seventies. In 1963 he came out of retirement to play for West Drayton 3rd XI, two years after giving up playing for the 1st XI. Elected President of the club in 1970, he remained the only player to have scored centuries on both days of the same week-end until 1989. But he did not turn his back on his old football club: in 1957 he sent a telegram to Hayes FC, wishing them luck in their Amateur Cup semi-final against Bishop Auckland at Newcastle. He attended the Amateur Cup tie with City of Norwich OBU in January 1972, with fellow finalist Ralph Brown, and also was present when Hayes lifted the London Senior Cup for the second time – after a 50 year gap – in 1981. At this time he was still friendly with centre-half Albert Wainwright, a fellow resident of West Drayton, from the previous cup-winning team. He died in April 1991, at the age of 89, the last link with the glories of Hayes’ greatest achievements in the early 1930s.