Six players by the name of Watts have played for the club. The first was A Watts (we don’t know his first name), who played at right-back in 1910-11, the first season for which we have any match details. The only match in which we know that he played for sure was the Middlesex Minor Cup 1st round match against Hayes Athletic, which Botwell Mission lost, but was ordered to be replayed. The Mission won the replay, but Watts does not seem to have played in any further rounds up to the final, which the club lost to Willesden St Martins. A player of the same name played at left-half in the Hounslow & District League in the abortive 1914-15 season. But we do not know if he was one and the same.

E Watts (again we don’t know his first name, or whether he was related to the previous entry) was the goalkeeper who played in Botwell Mission’s first cup final in 1910-11. He played in most matches in the cup run, but not in any league matches, as far as we know. He played on and off for the next three seasons.

Jimmy Watts came with his brother Billy from Dover for trials with the club in the summer of 1953. Aged 20, he was stationed at Andover with the RAF at the time and was on Southampton’s books. He went straight into the first team at the start of the season and remained a regular for the next five seasons, at inside-forward or on the left wing. He was a clever player with a powerful shot and could sell a convincing dummy. He won representative honours for Middlesex within two months and frequently played for the county, as he also did for the Athenian League, London FA and Middlesex Wanderers. In 1954 he signed amateur forms for Chelsea, one of three such players (Ron Ayres and Les Champelovier were the others) who ensured that the Pensioners sent their championship-winning side to Church Road for an end-of-season friendly. He won an Athenian League championship medal in 1956-7, but missed out on the run to the semi-final of the Amateur Cup through a troublesome groin injury. In the summer of 1958 joined Hendon, but did not settle there and moved to Southall in December 1958. He rejoined Hayes in August 1959 in exchange for Morgan Reynolds and featured in the Amateur Cup run, but was dropped for the quarter-final at Crook Town. He stayed until March 1961, when he joined Uxbridge after being dropped. But he was back again in August 1961 for the last time and stayed until the end of the protracted 1962-3 season, when he moved to Hounslow Town. There he was converted to wing-half and eventually, after a spell playing at Wembley, became assistant manager in January 1970. He went back to Southall as coach in the summer of 1970 and was manager at Chalfont St Peter in 1972-3. During his career at Hayes, which spanned nine seasons, he made 204 appearances and scored 65 goals. He made one further connection with Hayes FC, when he married Derek Williams’ sister in the autumn of 1960.

Although he made only one appearance as a substitute in 1987-8, we know quite a lot about Steve Watts. A medical scientist by profession and a midfielder by position, he came from Ruislip Manor at the age of 18, having previously played for Brentford juniors and Windsor & Eton. On leaving Hayes, he went to New Zealand to play for Papatoetoe, for whom John Richardson had played several seasons earlier, before returning to Staines Town in December 1989. He played for Staines against Hayes in March 1990.

The last player of the name was Alvin Watts, predictably known as ‘Stardust’. An uncompromising full-back or centre-half, with a flare for scoring spectacular goals, he first came to notice in 1993-4, when he was reported as scoring 31 goals in nine matches for Cowley Youth Under 15s. He came to Hayes from Yeading and soon secured a place in a tight Hayes defence, taking Jason Goodliffe’s place when he was injured, alongside Chris Sparks, Andy Cox and Nathan Bunce. His straightforward methods tended to favour the long ball. He left Hayes abruptly early in the 2001-2 season, after having made 140+15 appearances and scoring six goals. He filled in at Stevenage Borough – against whom he had been sent off in the second match of the season – and then played briefly for Chesham United, before disappearing from the football scene.

Ian Waugh was an experienced full-back, who was signed by Clive Griffiths from Wealdstone in 1993 at the age of 24. But he got few chances to show his ability, being restricted to a few appearances on the bench. It was not until Terry Brown arrived that he was given a run in the first team, and he had his most sustained spell in 1994-5. But his chances were always going to be limited, once Jon Brady and Lee Flynn were established, and he rejoined Wealdstone in December 1995, having made 33+16 appearances and scored two goals.

When Cliff Powell returned to his home town in Wales at the end of the 1928-9 season, the newly named Hayes FC had the good fortune to attract WJ ‘Billy’ Webb to take his place in the drive to get out of the Spartan League. Webb was a petty officer in the Royal Navy and had played in an amateur international trial the previous season. Soon after his arrival at Church Road he was selected, along with Bert Gower and Jimmy Harmsworth, to represent the Spartan League and, a week later, he played in another international trial, North v South, at Blackpool. While he was away, his place was taken by Jock Smith, who played so well that the correspondent of the Middlesex Advertiser commented that Webb would find it difficult to get his place back. And so it proved: Smith held down the left-half position for the rest of the season and Webb left, after making only seven appearances and scoring one goal.

Ron Webb was an outside- or inside-right, who was one of several players to make the journey between Hayes and Bromley in the early 1950s. He arrived at Church Road in September 1952, but found the competition for a regular place tough. He made 11 appearances, scoring six goals, including a hat-trick against Redhill from the right wing, before moving on to emerging Carshalton Athletic in 1953.

Joining from Southern League Barnet in March 1976, after his contract was cancelled by mutual consent, Steve Webb made 9+2 appearances and scored one goal. He had joined Barnet from Millwall at the start of the 1974-5 season. He left Hayes in the summer of 1976 as he found the travel from his South London home too much.

F Webster was recruited from Kingstonian in November 1930 to replace Fred Long at outside-left. He played in the Amateur Cup tie at Wisbech Town, but was in turn replaced by Taffy Lloyd, who had been unavailable all season. He made a total of six appearances.

Another player from Spartan League and Great Western Suburban League days was Jack Weedon. Jack lived at Teddington and joined Botwell Mission from junior club Sunbury FC in 1922, making his debut in an end-of-season friendly against Tufnell Park. He also went to work for the Gramophone Company at this time. He took over at left-back in December 1922 when Jack Brooks went North for work and struck up an immediate understanding with his fellow full-back George Leather. Next season he played alongside Bill Ramsay. When Botwell Mission were elected to the Spartan League in 1925, he had a new partner, Jack Purvey; but this lasted only a few games, as Weedon sustained a broken leg in an FA Cup tie at Wycombe. The fracture was so bad that he missed the rest of the season and the whole of 1925-6 as well. As his injury kept him off work and, at that time, there was no welfare, Botwell Mission organised a benefit match for him, when Aston Villa reserves provided the opposition and generously waived all expenses. The match raised £88 9s 11d. He made his come-back at the start of the 1926-7 season, but it was immediately obvious that he could not continue during the first game of the season. He had made a total of 63 appearances and scored one goal in the 9-1 demolition of Newbury Town in April 1924. By now, Jack had moved to Hayes, when he married in 1926. But he had not lost interest in the football club. He was elected to the committee in 1931 and became honorary 2nd team manager in 1933. He continued to work at EMI, as the Gramophone Company became known in 1931, until 1957, when the cabinet factory was closed down. He then went to work for Hawker Siddeley at Kingston, but remained living in Harold Avenue, Hayes until 1963 at least.

Our last entry this week did not play for Hayes. Instead, Alex ‘Jock’ Weir had played for Preston North End, Watford and Northampton Town, and had coached Berne, taking them to the First Division and semi-final of the Swiss Cup, and the Burma national team, whose only defeat was at the hands of India in Calcutta. He lived at Edgware and was looking for a post nearer home. Hayes President, Arthur Ayres, entered into a gentleman’s agreement for him to coach Hayes for two seasons, taking over from Dave Brown, who reverted to secretary. His arrival at Hayes in November 1955 at the age of 39 was time ly: after 11 matches the club had not won a single game and had only four points. They had also been knocked out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle. Alex’s impact was immediate – five wins in six matches, including a 7-1 thrashing of Wealdstone. By the end of the season Hayes had reached the safety of 12th place, four points clear of re-election. But Hayes’ early dismissal from money-spinning runs in the national cup competitions meant that Alex’s help could not be afforded, so he went to Letchworth to help them win the Delphian League, while Hayes went on to win the Athenian League title under Dave Brown, who had obviously learned much from Weir. Alex next assisted Hendon, while coaching at Mill Hill School, until taking over as publican at the Bird in Hand, Crouch End. But his impact at Hayes was not forgotten, and he was invited back in October 1959 to help the club’s newly appointed coach, Ron Gadsden. But Gadsden felt slighted at being made his assistant and resigned. Alex immediately instituted a strict fitness regime and masterminded Hayes’ progression to the final qualifying round of the FA Cup. Then he took the club to the quarter-finals of the Amateur Cup, where they lost to holders Crook Town. Weir resigned on the eve of the cup-tie, when he disagreed with team selection, but he changed his mind and carried on. He wanted Jimmy Watts to play, even though he had not been playing well, but the selectors chose Phil Stanton instead. Weir left at the end of a disappointing season.

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