On what has become to be known as their bogey ground, Hampstead were beaten by Uxbridge Town on the R.A.F. Depot enclosure on Wednesday by two goals to one. Their previous visit this season in the Middlesex Senior Cup ended in a defeat by 3-2.

The result will have a great bearing on the League championship, for which Hampstead were well in the running. They were expected to get both points on Wednesday, seeing that they were able to place in the field the team that had extracted eight points from Enfield and Bromley in their four previous games, but after a promising start, Spalton scoring at the end of three minutes, they failed badly, and it has to be confessed that they were beaten by a better team.

Trevor Jones, a clever right winger, equalised the score after play had been in progress 10 minutes with a fine header which gave Smith no chance.

There was no more scoring in the first half, which was fairly even; but 12 minutes after crossing over Jones scored again from a pass given by the left wing, this being an exceptionally good goal.

In the second half Smith had far more work to do than Goodwin, the old Hampstead goalkeeper, who has since done good service for Uxbridge, and it was largely due to smartness by Smith and to particularly good work by Richardson, who was the recipient of a good deal of banter from his quondam Uxbridge supporters, that Hampstead were not more heavily defeated.

Credit for Hampstead's defeat can be attributed largely to Gower, who at left-back played a sterling game and kept the visiting right wing well in hand. The passing of years has not reduced his effectiveness to any great extent, and while Hayes, whom he served many years, may have thought his football days were over, he is still worthy of a place in any Athenian League side. The easy way in which he and Carr, his partner, put the visiting forwards offside was a disturbing factor. For the greater part of the game their work was puerile. Rarely was a good shot sent in.

Bucci was again a tower of strength for Hampstead, and some of the most troublesome shots came from his foot. There were two particularly good ones in the first half, and Goodwin is said to have confessed that one of them had crossed the line before it was cleared. However, there was no strong claim for a goal. There was a distinct weakness at right-half, but that was not the only place.

The Uxbridge men played a fast, bustling game which completely upset Hampstead, and one could not help wondering how it was that Uxbridge has from the beginning of the season been floundering at the foot of the League table. They have yet to visit Hampstead - the League game earlier in the season having to be abandoned through bad weather - and if they play as well as they did on Wednesday they may win that match. But it is most unlikely that Hampstead will again play such a poor game as we saw on Wednesday.

There was not a big attendance at the match, and but for the presence of the R.A.F. contingent it would have been extremely meagre.