Back to 27/8/27player link - and back to 3/9/21

Steve Phillips is an astonishingly good call and not one I would have got.

You can link a number of the current squad with Tony Bedeau and, hence, Tom Kelly and Steve Phillips. That saves one, I think.

And, would you believe, Phillips once appeared alongside Jim Fryatt in December 1974? Fryatt then gives a link via Geoff Cox - or Alan Smith - back to Dennis Lewis, Phil Joslin, Albert Huchinson and Laurie Milsom.

This could do my head in....

Hell Jon I've had a busy week and now you're doing my head in again with links between now and 1927!!

Reminds me of that six degrees of separation which I am sure most will have heard of. Basically it works that if you are given a name of somebody (doesn't matter at all where they live, you could be England and them in Australia, Ukraine, Alaska, or anywhere (but Rome)) in six steps of contact you will be able to contact them.

You think about where they live. Speak to somebody who may know that area or somebody you think may know somebody who knows that area....and so it goes on until you reach the named person. It's always within six steps (or contacts) unless of course you are a complete idiot!

Spooky really. Gives a whole new slant to 'It's a Small World'.

Has Bartie got it down to 10? Jim Fryatt was 1966-1974 so yes he did overlap with Steve Phillips in 1974 and that could eliminate Ian Twitchin from my list. However Tommy Northcott's last appearance was in 1965 so an overlap for that year is still required hence the need for John Benson or someone else of that era to cover for just one year. Bartie is really substituting Jim Fryatt for Ian Twitchin still leaving a 11 player link.

Maybe that is destined to be my contribution to the club's history? Ah, but I was there when he made that substitute appearance at Rochdale...

This is a wonderfully fiendish puzzle. I've tried Ralph Calland, Don Mills and Ron Shaw in a forlorn attempt to get down to nine.

I also seem to be stuck with the lack of a direct link from Laurie Milsom to beyond the war. I guess that's a reflection of the difficulty in putting sides together to compete in the League after 1927. Many players didn't last too long in those early days.

This is one you can't help scratching.

After my quick reply, I suddenly thought I could cut one by replacing Nicholson and Reid with Ryan Dickson. But then I realised Dickson's first loan came during Bedeau's gap year at Walsall, so I couldn't anyway.

Back in 2010, I was still just about going along with the usual line of the world starting in 1927. When we were relegated to National League South, this became untenable.

So as we fast approach our centenary, we really should now go back to Weymouth 3/9/21.

I think I can get there in 13 steps, using my recently-acquired knowledge that there was only one Alf Knapman.

I will start with the man who answered the Athletic News advert to become our first player-coach - Fred Mortimer (not the real one).

I have also brought in Robin Stubbs for John Benson. No offence to Benson, but Robin Stubbs is Robin Stubbs.

1 Mortimer, Fred 1921 to 1926 5 seasons
2 Bayes, Archie 1924 to 1930 6 seasons
3 Knapman, Alf 1927 to 1946 19 seasons
4 Head, Bert 1936 to 1951 15 seasons
5 Northcott, Tommy 1948 to 1966 18 seasons
6 Stubbs, Robin 1963 to 1973 10 seasons
7 Twitchin, Ian 1969 to 1981 12 seasons
8 Phillips, Steve 1974 to 1987 13 seasons
9 Kelly, Tom 1986 to 1996 10 seasons
10 Bedeau, Tony 1995 to 2008 13 seasons
11 Nicholson, Kevin 2007 to 2017 10 seasons
12 Reid, Jamie 2014 to 2020 6 seasons
13 Lemonheigh-Evans, Connor 2017 to 2021 4 seasons

Asa Hall had taken over as number thirteen, but now Mark Ellis gets rid of Nicholson, Reid and Hall as he played with Tony Bedeau back in 2007/08.

So we can now go over 101 years with just eleven players!

When you see a list of eleven players, it is the law that you have to try to fit them into a workable formation. A nice attacking 4-2-4.

Bayes

Bedeau
Head
Ellis
Kelly

Twitchin
Mortimer

Knapman
Phillips
Stubbs
Northcott

or in 1921 style, a good old-fashioned 2-3-5 :

Bayes

Head
Kelly

Twitchin
Ellis
Mortimer

Bedeau
Stubbs
Northcott
Phillips
Knapman