In the 1950s the three brothers Willis featured in West Middlesex football. The first was Alf Willis, a centre-forward, who started with Hayes in 1954, but then joined Yiewsley and Harmondsworth, before returning to Church Road in November 1955 for a brief spell. Over two seasons he made 11 appearances and scored eight goals, including a hat-trick against Redhill in January 1955. He later played for Harrow Town, as we shall see, and later for the 3 Rs works team, in the final of the United Workers National Cup at Honeycroft, Uxbridge, in May 1963.

Goalkeeper Micky Willis had started with the Hayes ‘A’ team in 1950. He made five appearances between 1955 and 1957 and also went on the club tour of Switzerland at Whitsun 1956, playing against Nordstern. He later played for Yiewsley.

The most colourful of the brothers was Johnny Willis. A centre-forward, like Alf, he came from Yiewsley in December 1958, and made his début at Christmas, when regular centre-forward Johnny Bartholomew, a postman, had to work. After two modest seasons, he became a regular scorer in 1960-1, and signed amateur forms for Leyton Orient in February 1961. After averaging almost a goal per game, and scoring against Hornchiurch in a 2-4 defeat, he was dropped to reserve for the next match at Sutton. But he failed to turn up and was suspended by Hayes. In fact, he had played for Harrow Town under the name ‘Shepherd’. His brother Alf had asked him to play, as Harrow were a player short; but he had made the gross mistake of being sent off. When his identity was discovered, he was sacked by Hayes, and went to Chesham United, where he was still playing in 1966. He made 50 appearances for Hayes and scored 27 goals.

Regular full-back during the 1913-14 season, when Botwell Mission played in two leagues, often on the same day, was G Willmott. Previously he had played in the Hayes Athletic team and appears in their team photograph of 1909-10, from which the photograph (left) is taken. He made at least 17 appearances for the Mission in 1914-15 (we don't know the exact number as records are incomplete) and was selected for the Uxbridge & District Junior League side against the Dauntless League in April 1914.

Graham Wilson had already kept goal for Rotorua City in his native New Zealand, when he came to England for trials with Newcastle United. He then played for North Shields and Scarborough before suffering a serious shoulder injury, which kept him out of football for a season. He joined Hayes in August 1981, at the age of 23, but had few opportunities behind Alan Cox. Over the 1981-2 season he made 15+2 appearances, before returning to New Zealand.

A certain amount of mystery surrounds Bobby Wilson, a centre-forward who joined Hayes from Feltham in October 1971, after suffering from domestic problems. Bobby had reputedly scored 80 goals in two seasons at Feltham, when he followed manager Allen Batsford to Walton & Hersham in 1967 at the age of 23. He certainly played in Walton’s pre-season trials, but does not feature among their goalscorers during the 1967-8 season. When he joined Hayes he was described as having played for Hendon and being an ex-international. But the records do not bear this out. He turned out only sporadically for Hayes, his appearances being limited by his business commitments, but an end-of-season review refers to his ‘star-quality’. In all, he made six appearances and scored three goals, but he remains a mystery.

An altogether more sympathetic case, but equally tantalising, was Dicky Winch, a skilful inside-forward, who came to Hayes from Barking in 1951. He had started with Ilford as a 17 year-old and had already gained Essex county representative honours. He went on to add Middlesex county honours, when he was selected for the match against Berks & Bucks at Wealdstone 1952, but ill health forced him to retire after making only 16 appearances and scoring four goals. He was diagnosed as suffering from tuberculosis and then spent months at a sanatorium in Switzerland. When he returned to England he was out of football for four seasons, before joining lowly Barkingside in the London League. He then joined Ilford and participated in their run to the final of the Amateur Cup in 1958, when they lost 3-0 to Woking at Wembley. A season later he rejoined Hayes and started the 1959-60 season as first-choice inside-left. But he did not enjoy playing on the hard grounds at the start of the season and, after only seven more appearances, he asked not to be selected because of his business commitments. He returned to Ilford, where he still lived, in October 1959.

Rodney Wing was an outside-right who could also play on the left wing. On QPR’s books in 1960-1, he went to Yiewsley, where he played in the Southern League as an amateur. He joined Hayes in summer 1963 and was soon selected for Middlesex and the Athenian League representative side. After a full 1963-4 season he went to Northumberland on business and returned after the start of the 1964-5 season, but could not get back into the first team. After a London Senior Cup tie and a friendly, he moved to St Albans City in December 1964. He returned to Hayes in summer 1966 and started the new season as the regular choice at outside-right, but he was relegated to the bench in November and dropped out. He had made a total of 58+1 appearances and scored six goals. He was playing for Eastcote in October 1969 and was recorded as working at Rolls Royce at Leavesden from 1970 to 1991. He was reported as living at Nottingham in December 2003 and awaiting his retirement.

In more recent times, Phil Wingfield was a winger or midfielder who joined from Walton & Hersham in February 1992, Born at Kingston in 1969, he had started with Walton in 1986, moved to Kingstonian in 1987, and returned to Walton in 1988, where he stayed for four seasons. A self-employed carpet cleaner, Phil stayed at Hayes for a season and a half, making 64+2 appearances and scoring 20 goals, including four goals in Hayes’ record 6-1 FA Trophy win over Tamworth in September 1992. He returned to Kingstonian for a small fee in summer 1993 and returned to torment the Hayes defence for Kingstonian in the Isthmian League and Conference, and for Farnborough Town in the Conference. He played for Sutton United in 2002 against Hayes.

When left-back Lee Flynn was unavailable through injury at the start of Hayes' first season in the Conference, firstly Obinna Ulasi and then James Wise were tried as his replacement. A cousin of Denis Wise, James made 6+2 appearances before Terry Brown entered the transfer market and obtained Iain Duncan for the problem position. James later played for Wembley.

Tony Witter was a temporary fix when the 1999-2000 season opened with centre-back Jason Goodliffe injured. He had started eleven seasons previously with Uxbridge, before moving to Grays Athletic, QPR, Plymouth Argyle and Millwall. He played the first two games of the season until Goodliffe was available and was then released.

Willy Wordsworth had spent several years as number 2 at Church Road before being given the unenviable task of following Terry Brown into the Hayes Managers seat in the summer of 2001. This was his reward for almost keeping the Clubs Conference status during a spell as caretaker manager at the end of the previous season. While never setting the world alight, the Club did achieve a high enough finish in the Isthmian Premier to earn a place as a founder member of the new Conference South set up. Willy finally resigned in March 2006 and will possibly be most remembered for a run of just one win in 17 league games that preceded that decision, one of the worst in the Clubs history.

When he came to Hayes in December 1970 at the age of 33, Len Worley was at the end of a noteworthy career. In fact, he originally joined Hayes to help out during a period when there was a long injury list. An outside-right, he had started with Chalfont St Peter and joined Wycombe Wanderers in 1954. At Wycombe he made 512 appearances and scored 67 goals, playing in the 1957 Amateur Cup final, which the Chairboys lost to mighty Bishop Auckland, and being a member of the Isthmian League-winning sides of 1954-5 and 1955-6. During his time at Wycombe, he won seven England amateur international caps and played for the Great Britain Olympic team, Middlesex Wanderers, FA XIs, the Isthmian League and Berks & Bucks county team. He also played for Charlton Athletic in Division One of the Football League in 1957-8, and in 1959-60 for Tottenham Hotspur, who offered him professional terms.  The ‘Stanley Matthews’ of amateur football, he twice broke a leg – in 1957 and 1967. After leaving Wycombe, he joined Chesham United, and then moved to Wealdstone and Slough Town. At Hayes, he started playing in the Premier Midweek Floodlight League, but then graduated to the Athenian League and finally played in every round of the Amateur Cup, when Hayes reached the quarter-finals, before losing to Leatherhead in a replay. Len was probably impelled by the thought of gaining the one honour which had been denied him – the Amateur Cup. During his time at Hayes he made 18+2 appearances and scored one goal. After leaving Hayes, Len played for a Sunday League side at Chalfont. A businessman in property development and sports retail, Len still lives at Chalfont and frequently watches Wycombe Wanderers.

When goalkeeper G Wright joined Botwell Mission from Uxbridge Juniors in the Uxbridge & District Junior League in February 1914, it was with the express intention of winning some medals. But his scheme came unstuck when, playing at centre-forward for Uxbridge Wednesday in a mid-week league game, he met with an accident, which terminated his Mission career after just four appearances. He was playing again, for Steel Barrel Works, in the abortive 1914-15 season.

Another winger of the same period, but a natural left-footer, was Peter Wright, who joined Hayes in December 1969 from Slough Town, having previously played for Wycombe Wanderers and Southall. At Slough he had won an Athenian League championship medal and been selected for Berks & Bucks. At Hayes he was soon selected for Middlesex and for the Athenian League side. Over a period of a season and a half, he made 60+3 appearances ands scored 18 goals. He will always be remembered for the four goals which ihe scored in the 4-0 victory over his old club Southall in the final of the Middlesex Charity Cup in May 1971. This turned out to be the last but one match that he ever played for Hayes. A production controller for a firm which made gold cases and bracelets, he took up a business appointment in West Germany in summer 1971. There he was variously reported as being homesick, and intending to join FC Weinheim. He returned to play one last time for Hayes in the Premier Midweek Floodlight League at the end of the 1971-2 season.

Shane Wye was a midfielder, who joined Hayes from Chertsey Town in summer 1986. He made six appearances and then joined Woking, for whom he played for several seasons.

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