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James, what you seem to forget is a thing called "tactics". The British used a three-plane system, while the Germans used two-plane teams. The results: both German fighters were usually covered, while the British third plane was not. Also, German pilots had a lot of experience already (Spain, Poland, France, the Low countries, etc), while the British did not. There were many trained German pilots, fighting against an ill-prepared, ill-trained, understaffed RAF.
If you look at tanks, you'll see the same thing: French heavy tanks were superior to most German tanks, but they were used badly - distributed all over the battlefield, instead of concentrated in one armoured fist. This was also a matter of superior equipment, but inferior tactics.
Finally, the spitfire might have been better than the BF109 (which had two MGs and a cannon, mind!), but there weren't many spitfires around, and there weren't many pilots to fly them. The typical British fighter at the time was the Hurricane, if I remember correctly. And thanks to constant attacks, the British pilots could barely rest or recover, something that also has a profound effect on the end results.
In short: just because one machine is technically better than another does not mean it will always beat it.
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