Roy Radmore was one of many Hayes players who have come from Brentford juniors. He arrived in the summer of 1958, and was essentially a defender, playing at centre-half or right-back, but he was also pressed into service  as an emergency centre-forward, although he never found the net. He made 18 appearances over four seasons, before resigning from Hayes in September 1962. He made a further two appearances in 1965-6.

Over four seasons in the early 1970s, goalkeeper Kevin Raine joined and left Hayes four times. He was born at Chesterfield, home of fine goalkeepers, where his father had played as a professional.  He himself was on West Bromwich Albion's books and later played for Fulham reserves. He gained a BSc at London University before going to Oxford University for a Masters degree and a Blue in 1972. It was while at Oxford that he joined Hayes as deputy to John Overton. When Ian Bath joined, Kevin went to Wokingham Town, before returning in February 1973. In January 1974 he was off again, this time to Wycombe Wanderers (6 apps.), only to rejoin Hayes some months later. He left again in September 1974 for Walton, only to come back in December 1974.  Finally he moved to Dover in autumn 1975 to take up a teaching post and joined the Lilywhites. His last visit to Hayes was as assistant manager of Margate on the occasion of their visit in the Conference in March 2002. During his four sojourns at Church Road, he made a total of 43 appearances.

When Talbot Ramsay, a marine engineer, moved his family from his native Dundee to Hayes to work as an inspector of underground pumping stations, he brought with him two sons who would play a large part in putting Botwell Mission on the football map. But, unlike most of their team-mates, they were not products of the Hayes Council School in Clayton Road – instead, they went to West Drayton School. The elder, Christopher Buchanan Ramsay, born in 1897, was a member of the school team which imposed their only defeat on the Clayton Road School in 1908-9. From 1911-12 he played regularly for Botwell Mission, usually at outside-right, and was selected for the Uxbridge & District Junior League team against the Dauntless League in April 1914, scoring both goals in a 2-0 win. During the Great War he served in the Royal Field Artillery in France and Belgium, and was awarded a Military Medal. Chris, whose nickname was ‘Teena’, an earlier term for ‘Jack-the-lad’, became a regular in the Mission side after the end of hostilities, and also was depicted in a series of cartoons of Famous Footballers in the colours of QPR in March 1920 – together with Freddie Knight he had been signed by Ned Liddell. He married Lily Deamer, a member of a famous Hayes footballing family, in August 1920. He was selected for Middlesex in December of the same year and stayed with the Mission until 1923, when he joined Southall and played against Botwell Mission in the final of the 1924 Charity Cup. Thereafter he made sporadic appearances for the Mission, playing also for Slough Trading Co., when he worked on the Slough Trading Estate, Hanwell Town in 1924, Savoy Hotel in 1925, and for Staines Town in 1927-8. During his career with the Mission, Chris played 67 first-class games and scored 24 goals. In 1933, he won compensation of 8s 10d per week from the Gramophone Company for a damaged cartilage, which he maintained he had suffered at work, but which his employers claimed was the result of playing football. He really gives the impression of meriting his nickname. But there was sadness as well. His two sons both went to Townfield School and served in the Army during World War II – William in the Airborne Regiment, and Chris jnr. in the Royal Artillery. Both survived, but Chris was killed when he fell through a roof which he was cleaning at the Kandya factory. William was still alive in 2004. When Chris snr., who lived in Glebe Road and is pictured in 1951, died  in November 1965, he featured in a large article with photograph in the Hayes News.

Younger brother Bill Ramsay, whose nickname was ‘Tut’ or ‘Scotty’, was quick-tempered – he was known for starting fights at the Hayes Working Men’s Club, often with his brother, who would wind him up. He was a full-back and played for Botwell Mission at a young age, making his début in 1911-12 and playing regularly until 1922. Thereafter he played for his employers, Savoy Hotel, who played at Western Road and made the Middlesex Senior Cup semi-final in 1925, alongside his brother and George Leather. He was also recorded as having played for Brentford before 1920, but not in their first team. Upon his retirement from football in 1927, he was presented with a watch by the committee of Botwell Mission. He had made 116 first-class appearances and scored a single goal, against Reading United in the final match of the 1919-20 season. Later he ran a B&B guest house at Broadstairs and then started a metal treatment business in Hayes, which is still run by one of his daughters. But his Scottish roots were still apparent in his love of golf.

Bill Ramsay’s predilection for a scrap was shared 70 years later by Martin Randall, a combative striker who signed from Northwood in 1994 for £1500. He had scored 35 goals for the Woods in the previous season, but took time to settle at Isthmian League level. In five seasons at Church Road he made 147+45 appearances and scored 62 goals, including one of only three hat-tricks scored by a Hayes player in the Conference. He always played ‘near to the edge’ and delighted in upsetting opposing defenders as much with his mouth as with his feet. As a result he was both loved and loathed by Hayes fans, and there were divided emotions when he dropped down a level with St Albans City in 1999, before moving on to Woking, Hendon and AFC Wimbledon, where he excited the same passions.

JW (Jack) Rawlings, is generally considered one of Hayes’ greatest players. An inside-forward, who could also play wing-half, he was already an England international and a member of the British Olympic team in the 1948 Games, a Middlesex Wanderer and Middlesex cap, when he moved from Enfield in 1949. In his last game he helped Enfield to a 6-1 win over Hayes in the final of the Charity Cup. At Hayes he had little to show for his greatness – one further cap, before he spoke his mind and was ignored ever more, and a runners-up medal in the Athenian League, which would have been a winner’s medal had he not been cruelly tackled from behind in a crucial match with eventual champions Tooting & Mitcham United and suffered a broken leg and torn ligaments. In fact, it was not until his very last game for Hayes that he gained a winner’s medal, in the final of the Charity Cup against his old club Enfield, when he scored both goals in a 2-0 victory and neatly apostrophized his career with the two clubs. He left Hayes after a difference of opinion with Dave Brown and joined Hendon, much to their surprise. Hendon immediately won the Athenian League and Jack was leading scorer. Forced to retire at Easter 1957 (and missing Hayes’ only league championship), he became team manager of Southall. But that was one task too far – Southall were in decline and, while Jack won respect, he did not win any prizes. All the while he had been a representative with the Castrol Oil Company, whose chairman, Lord Wakefield, had been the Patron of Hayes FC. He later graced the golf course with a single-figure handicap and still lives at West Drayton. During his Hayes career he made 172 appearances and scored 44 goals. Much has already been written in the matchday programme his meritorious wartime exploits and his footballing prowess – lack of further words here should not be taken as lack of admiration and respect. More is to be found in the Hall of Fame.

Arthur Rawlinson was a winger, who could play on either flank. He joined Hayes from Ilford in the summer of 1952, played in the first three matches of the season, but soon left to join Hounslow Town, for whom he played against Hayes in February 1953.

Although he had played at centre-forward for Hayes Athletic against Botwell Mission in the semi-final of the Middlesex Minor Cup in 1912, when the Mission went on to lift their first-ever trophy, WT Rayner played twice for the Mission in 1920 at inside-left, scoring a goal in the 3rd qualifying round Amateur Cup match with Uxbridge.

When Martin Hackett was appointed manager of Hayes, several of his former players followed him from Wembley, including Dave Read. Dave was a centre-forward and joined Hayes in August 1979. But his failure to score in seven appearances, plus the sacking of Hackett, led to him returning to Wembley in December 1979.

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