In the last year of World War II, Hayes came out of hibernation and entered a young side in the Ealing-based Dauntless League, under the watchful eye of former player FJ ‘Sonny’ Long. Their centre-forward and leading scorer with over 30 goals was Tony Gadsby. He then joined the Royal Navy and was posted to the Far East, yet managed to play for the reserves in 1945-7, but never made the first team.

It is not unusual over a history covering 95 years to find two players with the same name – but it is surprising that they should play at the same time.  This has happened twice, and all four players’ names started with the letter G. The first case was that of the Ron Gadsdens. One was famous, the other less so. 

RA Gadsden was a centre-half or left-half, who came from Kingstonian in October 1948, having previously played for Southall.  He made seven appearances for Hayes, before joining Wembley, for whom he was still playing in 1951. 

Fortunately, there was no confusion with his better known namesake, RF Gadsden. Born in 1925, this Ron was primarily a left-back, who came from Pinner and was sufficiently talented to make it into the QPR Youth team, which reached the final of the Middlesex Red Cross (Charity) Cup final against Tufnell Park in 1944, played at Wembley Stadium. On the resumption of normal football in 1945 he joined Hayes, where he remained, with two interruptions, until the late 1950s. Initially he was tried at several positions, on both wings, at inside-forward and wing-half, before settling into the left-back slot by Christmas 1945; in later years, he turned out at wing-half and even centre-forward, when needed. He was described as short for a full-back and not hefty, getting by on his crisp and biting tackling. He left for Southall during the close season 1946, but returned to Hayes by the following Christmas, although he continued to play for Southall in the Middlesex Charity Cup, as his registration permitted. The only other time he left Hayes was in December 1951 when, after being taken seriously ill with a gastric ulcer, he lost his place at full-back to ‘Soapy’ Hudson and joined Wealdstone. In fact, with Wealdstone he achieved an Athenian League winner’s medal, before returning to Church Road in August 1953.

Ron received many honours during his career, starting with an invitation to tour Holland at Easter 1946 with an English Amateur XI. During the same month he played the first of 20 games for the Athenian League. In June 1948 he again toured Holland with the Chelsea Mariners, a select team, and in October of the same year played for Southern Counties against Northern Counties at Dulwich in an international trial. In December, he played for the Rest against England at Ilford and finally got his international cap, alongside Frank Bridges, against Ireland in February 1949. Strangely, this was the only time that he was capped. In 1950 he toured Holland again, this time with Middlesex Wanderers, and in later years toured the Far East with that famous club. He was captain of Hayes for many seasons in the 1950s, including when the club won the Athenian League for the only time and reached the semi-final of the Amateur Cup in 1956-7. In his Hayes career, he played 421 games and scored eight goals.

Meantime, he was following the FA coaching course, and when, in January 1958, he got a job as a draughtsman at HMV in order to be near to the club, it looked as if he was being groomed to become club coach. Upon finally passing the coaching examinations in December 1958, he was appointed coach.  However, when Alex Weir was reappointed as coach in October 1959, Ron resigned – although offered the position of assistant coach he obviously took this as an affront.

After leaving Hayes he coached Yeading successfully and started that club on its climb from local football towards where it is now. In 1972 he moved to Baildon, near Shipley in Yorkshire, with his employers, Thorn, and ran his works team, sometimes playing in an emergency.

By everyone’s reckoning, he was a quiet and unassuming player, liked by everyone. I get the impression that he was treated tactlessly at Hayes and could have been one of the club’s greatest ambassadors. Ron passed away peacefully in February 2009 having the previous year become the first ever Life Vice-President of Hayes & Yeading United FC.

A contemporary of Ron Gadsden was Bob Gallacher, a wing-half, who joined Hayes from Golders Green in March 1946, having started with West Ham. He stayed until the end of the 1947-8 season and made 75 appearances, scoring six goals. What was remarkable was that he scored three of those goals in one match against Tooting & Mitcham United in March 1946, at a time when wing-halves were not expected to contribute more than one or two goals per season.

Brendan Gallen, brother of Kevin of QPR fame, made an explosive debut when, in a 2nd round FA Cup replay at Boothferry Park, he rifled home a free-kick against Hull City. He had the misfortune to be a left-back at a time when the position was commanded by Lee Flynn, so he had to take his chance whenever Flynn was unavailable or when he was brought on as substitute, as his total of 44+14 appearances over three seasons suggests. His later availability was also impacted by his decision to concentrate on his Accountancy examinations. He simply disappeared from Hayes and was next heard of playing in Irish football, until he re-emerged briefly at Hendon and then at Maidenhead, where he played against Hayes and scored in a League Cup tie.

We started with players of the same name and will finish on the same theme. Three players with the surname George have played for Botwell Mission/Hayes.  The most significant was F George (first name not recorded), who played for the Mission from 1911 until 1924 and was a regular member of the first side to win a trophy, the Middlesex Minor Cup in 1912. He came from Hillingdon, played mainly at wing-half and was selected for the Uxbridge & District Junior League representative side against the Dauntless League in April 1914 together with G Willmott, Fred Knight, Chris Ramsay and Jack West. As well as gaining several league championship medals, he was also a member of the first Mission team to win the Middlesex Senior Cup at Brentford against Southall in 1920.