We start letter C with two brothers, the Caesars.  Eric Caesar was the younger brother, being born in 1910. He was a half-back, at wing or centre, with a strong, sure kick and a powerful build. He came to Hayes from Wimbledon in 1930, as part of the contingent of five, having previously played for Dulwich.  He played in two Amateur Cup finals, both times on the losing side: in 1931 with Hayes, and in 1934 with Leyton. After his second final, he returned to Hayes for the first time.  He gives the impression of yo-yoing across London from West to East and back throughout the 1930s. For in 1935 he went to Harwich & Parkeston, back to Hayes in 1938, and finally back to Harwich in January 1939. He also ‘guested’ for Hayes in a league match on Christmas Day 1937. During his three stints, he totalled 139 appearances and scored 13 goals, often spectacular, long-range efforts. He is last heard of in a Hayes context attending a reunion of ex-Hayes players in March 1958.

His elder brother, Bill Caesar, was born in 1899, and is the only former Hayes player to have merited an obituary in Wisden.  Like his brother, he started with Dulwich Hamlet, playing alongside Edgar Kail during the Great War, while those of fighting age were away in France.  Caesar won amateur caps in 1925 and 1929 with Dulwich.  He then started his wandering, joining Brentford as captain of their reserve side, and making his Football League début at Fulham in October 1929 at the age of almost 30. In March 1931, when Hayes was hopelessly behind with its league fixtures because of its success in cups, he joined as cover for the fixture back-log, doubtless at the instigation of his younger brother. As chance would have it, Alf Butcher, the regular left-half, was injured in the Middlesex Senior Cup final only five days before the Amateur Cup final, so Bill Caesar was obliged to play. With only ten minutes of normal time to play and the score goalless, a scrimmage took place in front of the Hayes goal, and a hand, that of Bill Caesar, was seen by the referee to push the ball away. Penalty. Goal. Defeat at the last hurdle, and all attributable to Bill Caesar. All in all, he played only three games for Hayes, for certain (because of the need to play nine league matches in the last three weeks of the season, some went unreported). Later, he played for Kingstonian (1933-4), Harwich (1936) and Barking (1938), as well as for Darlington, Fulham and Walsall. All of this seems extraordinary, but the reason for his entry in Wisden is even more so. He first played for Surrey, his home county, in 1922, when he was described as ‘a distinctly quick bowler’. But he did not make his next appearance in the County Championship until 1946, for Somerset, when he took 10 wickets in three matches at an average of 25.2. The gap of 24 years between appearances has only been once exceeded. He died in April 1988. But he lost the cup for Hayes.

Of all the players who have ever graced a Hayes shirt, Doug Cameron must be the one about whom we know most, even at 50 years’ distance. This was because he died young, at a time when his deeds were fresh in the memory. He was a local boy, born at Harlesden and educated at Acton County School, whose first job after leaving school in 1937 was as a clerk in the goods depot at Hayes railway station, where he remained until joining the RAF in 1941. He trained as a bomber pilot and gained a DFM on his first mission over Germany, when his plane was damaged and the rest of the crew baled out, except for a gunner who fought the flames, while he brought it back safely.  He made over 30 operational flights over Germany, targeting Berlin, Hamburg, Essen, Dusseldorf and Mannerheim, and was awarded a DFC “for unstinted devotion to duty”.  During one raid on Berlin, a 1,000 lb. bomb dropped by another bomber at a greater altitude passed right through his plane. After Victory in Europe, he transferred to Transport Command and ferried troops between England and India and bases in the Far East for operations against Japan. He made his début for Hayes reserves towards the end of 1945-6 season. Demobbed in August 1946 at the rank of Flight Lieutenant, he returned to Hayes railway station, progressing to Paddington, and played three seasons with Hayes FC, in the reserves and then the first team.  He was tall and a fearless tackler, and played 55 matches for Hayes, scoring 4 goals. In 1947-8 he was ever-present. He went to Bromley on amicable terms in October 1949, because he thought county honours would be easier to get with Kent.  At Bromley he was a member of the team which won the Amateur Cup in the first Wembley final in 1949. He was also selected for an FA XI v Oxford Univ. in November 1950. It was after playing in an international trial at Carlisle, that he rapidly lost form. He joined Wycombe Wanderers and played twice for their reserves, the last time being on Christmas Day 1951. He then took to his bed and was diagnosed to be suffering from an obscure glandular disease. He died at St Thomas’ Hospital on St Valentine’s Day 1952 at the age of 30, leaving a wife, who came from Hayes Garden Village, and two young children.  Ron Gadsden was a pall bearer at his funeral. A testimonial match was played v Bromley at end of 1952 season, for which a programme was produced with a very full CV.

Like Doug Cameron, Ralph Carr is another example of someone who started with Hayes, but made his name elsewhere. Born in 1912, he made his début in goal at Southall in August 1933.  In the 1933-4 season he made a total of 19 appearances, including a 1^st round FA Cup tie away to Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic, before joining Sutton United in February 1934. He played for Sutton, with a brief time at Redhill at the end of the 1938-9 season, until 1950, making over 200 appearances, and being a member of their championship side of 1945-6. He made six appearances for the Athenian League representative team (three of them while at Hayes), represented Surrey, Southern Counties and the RAF and, towards the end of his playing career, he won his only international cap, against France in 1948. In 1950 he became, briefly, manager of Sutton, then secretary, director and life member. He remained on the management committee and a director until his death in 2001. In 1990 he was Hayes’ guest of honour at the cup-tie against the renamed AFC Bournemouth. More honours followed in 1993, when he was made Wanderer of the Year by Middlesex Wanderers. An article on his life was published in the programme for the match with Sutton United on 5 October 2002.

Alan Carrington, known as ‘Carrots’, came to Hayes from Walthamstow Avenue in August 1974 as a winger and converted to full-back over his six seasons at the club. He lived in Enfield and previously played for St Albans, Cheshunt and Ware; while with Walthamstow, he also played for Cambridge United reserves.  When Alan Harris moved from Cambridge to become Hayes team manager, Alan followed him.  He was a Post Office engineer, a job which often kept him out of mid-week matches. Over his career at Hayes he made 300 appearances, averaging 55 games per season, and scored 29 goals. He played in every position, including goalkeeper, when Alan Cox was injured.  He joined his local club, Enfield, in December 1979 and subsequently played for Harlow for several seasons. Later he became assistant manager at Leytonstone-Ilford (1988-9), Redbridge Forest (1989-90) and Boreham Wood (1994-5).  He was last seen as a scout for Stevenage in 2001-2.

Bobby Carter was a golden boy of Hayes football who never realized his potential, owing to a cruel series of injuries. A local, from Judge Heath Lane, he signed for Wealdstone at the start of the 1970-1 season, joining Hayes in April 1971. He was soon spotted by Charles Hughes, the England amateur team manager, and was watched on several occasions by the Amateur International Selection Committee. Selection for the FA XI followed, but then he started to be dogged by injury.  He had a knee operation in summer 1972, but never really regained the trickiness which had been such a feature of his play. All told, he made only 34 appearances, scoring 15 goals.

Jon Case was a tenacious right sided player who was equally at home at the back or in midfield. Having come through the ranks at the Club, he made his debut in a Conference fixture against Chester City in 2001. In all, Jon made 118+20 appearances, scoring 13 goals before dropping down a league to play for Windsor & Eton in 2005.

Finally, the Cass brothers, Charlie, Harold and Percy, were self-appointed trainers to the Botwell Mission side from the early 1920s. Usually pictured in waistcoat with rolled-up sleeves and a towel over their shoulders, they adorn all the early photographs of the team. They lived in Clayton Road. Charlie gave up as trainer in 1940, after 20 years, owing to pressure of work at Merriman’s Filtering Media. He eventually took over the running of a garage at Flackwell Heath, where he died in 1965, aged 64. Harold, whose wife Jo was a sister of William Vaughan, one of Botwell Mission’s two casualties in the Great War, moved out to High Wycombe. Percy, however, never married and continued to live at the family home until his father died, and then moved into lodgings in Coronation Road. He died playing snooker at the Ivy Leaf ex-Servicemen’s Club, Uxbridge in November 1959, aged 55. True to type, he was leading by a frame at the time.