On the well-appointed Stadium ground at Uxbridge on Saturday, Hampstead beat R.A.F. (Uxbridge) by five goals to one, thus earning the right to meet Hounslow at Claremont Road, Cricklewood, in the next round.

As Uxbridge Town were at home in a League match, there was not a large attendance at the Stadium, the majority being members of the R.A.F. Hampstead, however, had a good representation, and this indicates a deeper interest in the welfare of the club.

Hampstead had to make changes in the team owing to Buchanan and Lloyd being on the injured list. J.W. Bloxham retained his position at left-half, Bucci (the captain) again playing as an inside-right wing forward. His partner was A.R. Eagles, who has on several occasions been at centre-forward, and this enabled Bramley to cross over to Lloyd's old position at outside-left.

The enforced changes, however, strengthened the front line rather than weakened it. Allowing that the R.A.F. at the Uxbridge Depot are not up to Athenian League standard, it was not a bad performance to score five goals against Chaston, who has the reputation of being among the finest goalkeepers in the Services, and has appeared in several representative games. Other men at the Uxbridge Depot have also been chosen to play for the R.A.F. in big matches, but there are decided weaknesses in the side, and Hampstead had the game in hand from the start.

There was just a chance that Hampstead might have to be content with a drawn game when Corporal Turner, at centre-forward, scored for the Airmen early in the second half, Hampstead having then a lead of only one goal, but this only acted as a spur to the visitors to do better things, and two more goals quickly followed.

Twenty-five minutes of fairly even play took place before a goal was obtained. Turner had a good chance of opening the score, but a clever run through ended with a shot wide of the mark. On another occasion the crossbar was struck. On the other hand, Chaston had to deal with some fine shots, one by Bucci being tipped over the bar. Evans, who had experienced hard luck once or twice, credited Hampstead with their first goal from a pass by Eagles, but it was in the nature of a gift through a back miskicking. From that time they continued to show their superiority, but it must not be lost sight of that for a quarter-of-an-hour or so the R.A.F. played one short, Stott, the right-half, having to leave the field through receiving a bad cut on the forehead in a collision with Bramley. After receiving hospital treatment he returned with his forehead bandaged.

Bucci, with a hard low shot, beat Chaston just before the interval, the score on crossing over being 2-0 in Hampstead's favour. The margin should have been greater had chances been accepted. Butland has got into the habit of booting the ball well over the bar, and now and again we heard the cry, "Keep 'em low, Bert."

With the return of Stott the R.A.F. played a forceful game, and eight minutes from the restart Turner got through, Smith having no chance to save. Taking the game throughout, the Hampstead backs played splendidly, but they seemed at fault when this goal was scored.

A few minutes later Hampstead redressed the balance through Evans, Chaston being deceived by one of his own backs, and Eagles looked like getting another, his shot from a difficult angle being one of the best attempts of the match. Following good work by Bramley, who seemed quite at home on the left wing, Evans found the net, but was rightly given offside. However, he was not long before he scored a legitimate goal, thus completing his trio.

There was some excitement when, in a scrimmage, Dean conceded a penalty kick. It was taken by Chaston, who is more accustomed to saving goals than to scoring them. Smith cleared, but Chaston should easily have got a goal with the return shot. But he sent wide, amid laughter.

With a quarter-of-an-hour to go Eagles followed up clever work on the left wing by scoring a good goal, and though Hampstead continued to hold the upper hand they had to be content with a victory of 5-1. It would have been 6-1 had the referee delayed blowing his whistle for a couple of seconds, the ball going into the net following a corner kick.