THIS summer, like every other for the past 20 years, Stephen Hosmer will register the name Hounslow Town FC with the Middlesex County FA.

Not out of any hope that the one proud amateur team will be making a comeback, but to prevent any pretenders to the throne taking on their name.

Hosmer was part of the youth team set-up at Denbigh Road when Hounslow Town, less than 30 years after reaching the FA Amateur Cup Final at Wembley, were wound up.

But such is the regard the defunct club is still held in, Hosmer has ensures each year for the past two decades that nobody else can take their name.

One such club who fell foul was Hounslow Borough, who changed their name from Harrow Hill Rovers on moving to the borough in 2001, but who went bust themselves five years later.

Hosmer, who lives in Hanworth, said: “Hounslow Borough were desperate to be called Hounslow Town, but we didn't let them have the name.

“They were always in the local papers for all the wrong reasons, for punch-ups and other things, and we did not wan the famous old name to be associated with such things.

“The amount of aggro they had was unbelievable, and we did not want that to be our name. Long after Hounslow Town was gone, people still associated the name with the club's glory days.”

Ironically, the end came for Hounslow Town in 1991, just a couple of years after Gordon Bartlett had led them to their highest ever league position.

But according to Hosmer, it was inevitable once Hounslow Council got involved, and set their sights on the prime piece of town centre real estate which was their Denbigh Road ground.

And Hosmer believes, although the club had their financial problems, they could have been saved had a deal not been done under the table.

He said: “The club was having some money problems, and the brewery who they owned the money to went to Hounslow Council as guarantors.

“At the time, the council were planning the new town centre, and originally, they wanted to build it from Hounslow East station all the way to Hounslow Central station, and with a hotel in the middle of the High Street.

“They were trying to work out what to do with Alexandra School, which was originally on the High Street, and was the only building they could not find a place for in the new town centre plan.

“They could move everything apart from the school, so the council took the Denbigh Road ground back, which provided them with an instant solution.

“It was all kept hush hush. People would have come up with the cash to keep the club going if they knew what was going on. But before anybody could do anything about it, it had already gone down the road of closing the club.

“The minute the council got involved, it solved a big problem for them, and we all found out too late. There were people with money who would have come forward, but it presented to us as a fait accompli.”

In the event, Hounslow, merged with then Isthmian League side Feltham to form Feltham & Hounslow Borough, an arrangement which lasted four years before the club reverted back to simply Feltham.

Hosmer added: “A parting of ways was agreed after a few years. To be honest, a lot of the Hounslow people didn't come over to the new club, and it had little to do with Hounslow by the end.”