City Fade Out After Holding Two-goal Lead.

Boscombe Win at St James's.

Exeter City 2
Bournemouth and Boscombe 3.

Regan (pulled muscle) and Rew (facial injuries) were unable to take part in the City's match against Bournemouth this afternoon. After some discussion Grant was chosen to deputise for Regan, and Smith for Rew. Bournemouth, challenging strongly for second place in the table, had Blair, the former Scottish international, at inside-right. McGibbon, scorer of 27 League goals this season, led the attack.

CITY:
Hoyle
Johnstone Clark
Bartholomew Walker Powell
Hutchings Smart Smith Mackay Grant
Referee:- Mr C.P.Jacobs, of Bath.
Linesmen:- Messrs L.R.E.Burfield and R.L.Buscombe.
Cheney Blakeman McGibbon Blair Stephens
Martin Stirling Young Sanaghan Cunningham
Bird
BOSCOMBE:

Three goals in a thrilling five minutes' phase transformed the out

look at St James's Park, where Exeter were beaten in their Division III South game after dominating the play for an hour and leading by two goals (Smith and Clark from a penalty) to nil. Exeter looked at this stage to have a winning margin but the whole team faded out and Stephens, McGibbon from a penalty, and Stephens again scored for Bournemouth.

Friendly match at Axminster.
City Reserves 2 Axminster 1.

Axminster:- Hancox; Gage, Sweetland; Endicott, Down, Davis; Worden, Goddard, Badey, Wilmington, Bellamy. City Reserves:- Singleton; Warren, Coles; Fallon, Davey, Gibson; Dymond, D.F.Digby, Cumming, Harrower, O'Hagan.

Referee:- Mr J.M.Wiltshire, of Sherborne.

Monday, April 25th 1949.
Devon Professional Championship.
Torquay United 3 Exeter City 1.

Though Exeter scored first in the Devon Championship match, played on Monday evening at Plainmoor, Torquay United, the holders, in the end won deservedly by three goals to one. The United's victory was easily obtained against a team, which apart from the goalkeeper, full-backs and centre-half, treated the contest as an exhibition and contributed little skill to compensate for the lack of effort and half-hearted endeavours.

Torquay:- Davis; Topping, Calland; Towers, McGuinness, Lester; Shaw, Lewis, Conley, Mills, Cameron.
City: Hoyle; Johnstone, Clark; Fallon, Gibson, Powell; Dymond, Harrower, Smith, Mackay, Grant.

Against the run of the play Grant gave Exeter the lead in the thirty second minute after a right wing centre had been missed by the home defence. Torquay then scored twice through Mills in the first half and once through Cameron in the second.
Attendance 6,000.

Wednesday, April 27th 1949.
Southern League,
City Reserves 3 Merthyr 1.

Playing their last but one home match in the Southern League, Exeter City Reserves won a decisive victory against the strong Merthyr side, who are in the running for the championship.
City Reserves:- Singleton; Warren, Rowe; Fallon, Davey, Jeffery; Cumming, Bartholomew, Johnston, Harrower, Smith.
Merthyr Tydfil:- Reid; Avery, Phillips; McIlvenny (P), Tabram, Richards; McIlvenny (R), Davies, Jarman, Beech, Powell.

Johnston and Smith put Exeter 2-0 in the lead by the interval, and Davies reduced Merthyr's arrears shortly after it. Exeter's third goal was netted by Smith with a penalty later in the game. The attendance was 2,548, with receipts of £79.6s.

• L.Hill, centre-forward, of R.A.F., Chivenor, has signed for the City as an amateur. He is 19 years of age and hails from Carlisle.