Hampshire County Matches 1895 / 96

Hampshire played three county chess matches this season, meeting the same opponents as 1894 / 95, with two matches in the SCCU Shannon South Eastern Division and a friendly one against Wiltshire.

A noticeable change this season was made in the SCCU following issues with the number of games not being completed in the time limit, which led to adjudications. You can see from comments in previous matches that some players did not agree with the adjudicated results and the rule change from 20 to 24 moves per hour was implemented. This did seem to help as the number of games which had to be adjudicated were reduced and the position with regards to the result on the boards was clearer. It does not say if the tea breaks continued, but this may have been a step too far!

Hampshire v Sussex 23 Nov 1895
Hampshire v Surrey 15 Feb 1986
Hampshire v Wiltshire 29 July 1986
Hampshire v Kent – scratch
Player Performance
Summary
Gallery
Acknowledgements and Sources

For the record of Hampshire County matches and links to any articles I have written the table on the Hampshire County Chess Matches page will detail these. The Hampshire County Chess History page summaries the leagues Hampshire have played in and the successes Hampshire have achieved. Both of these are available from the menu at the top of the site as well.

Hampshire v Sussex 23 Nov 1895 – Portsmouth

Hampshire were playing in the South East section of the SCCU Shannon Competition, where their opponents for the 1895/96 season were planned to be Sussex, Surrey and Kent.

The first match of the season was against Sussex, which was held in Portsmouth. A very close match resulted with Hampshire winning by one point as reported in the Hampshire Advertiser.

Hants - Sussex Report Hampshire Advertiser - Wed 27 Nov 1895 — **Hants – Sussex Report Hampshire Advertiser – Wed 27 Nov 1895**

Meanwhile the Hampshire Telegraph had some additional information confirming that chess clocks were now a common occurrence and that the matches had visitors from chess clubs and the local area watching the progress of the games. This may happen to some counties these days, but I don’t remember any visitors at the current Chiltern League matches.

The annual match between Hampshire and Sussex was played at the Speedwell Hotel, Landport, on Saturday last, by two opposing teams of 16 a-side. A time limit of 24 moves an hour being one of the conditions (according to the new rule passed by the executive of the Southern Counties Chess Union), each board was provided with a chess clock.

A great deal of interest was evinced during the progress of the match by a large number of visitors from the chess clubs of the town and district. At the termination of play it was found that Hampshire had a majority of one game.
Hampshire Telegraph – Saturday 30 November 1895

Hampshire winners were Elwell, Sherrard, Crassweller, Joyce, Balshaw and Sloper. Charles Hugh Sherrard who moved to Hampshire this year only played four games for the county from 1895 to 1897, on either board three or four. In 1905 he was joint second in the 2nd British Chess Championship behind Henry Atkins, proving he was a top class player. In 1900 is seems he had moved back to Kent, as was playing for them against Hampshire, which explains why he only played the four games for Hampshire. This is a shame as a player of his strength was a real loss to the county.

Worth noting that his second place at the British Chess Championship in 1905 matched Joseph Blake’s best performance of 1909, when he finished tied with Henry Atkins, but lost the tie-break (so in theory in second place, but this was a better performance).

As to why he did not play again in the British Championship, unfortunately he died in 1906 as detailed on the EDO Ratings website which also estimated his strength between 2300 and 2400. These ratings are only a rough estimate,

Here is a game between these two Hampshire players, from a SCCU tournament held in Salisbury in 1898. The First Class tournament was won by JH Blake and William Ward of London with 7½ points from 10 games. Sherrard finished with 4 points from his 10 games, whilst fellow Hampshire player Francis Elwell scored 5 points.

1898 Salisbury Tournament Newcastle Courant - Saturday 08 October 1898 — **1898 Salisbury Tournament Newcastle Courant – Saturday 08 October 1898**

The Britbase details on the British Championship have a number of his games from this tournament, including a fine finish against William Shoosmith.

One final point on the 1898 Salisbury Tournament was that the 2nd class tournament was won by Louisa Fagan with 9 points from 11 games. This was a great performance, but this tournament also included 17 year old George Thomas and the Isle of Wight Francis Joyce.

The match result below also includes the clubs the players were representing. For Hampshire, Southampton had five players, Portsmouth four, Gosport and Isle of Wight two and Andover, Bournemouth and Southsea one. Being played in Portsmouth would have made it easier for the Isle of Wight players to travel and we have met Joyce and Daws before in Hampshire and Isle of Wight matches.

Sussex as normal had the large representation from Brighton with eight players whilst Lodsworth has two (brothers?) and there were one each from Hastings, Lewes, Horsham and Hurst with two not detailed.

Board	Hampshire	Club	Hants Result	Sussex	Club	Sussex Result
1	JH Blake	Southampton	½	A Emery	Brighton	½
2	FJH Elwell	Southampton	1	HW Butler	Brighton	0
3	CH Sherrard	Gosport	1	HE Dobell	Hastings	0
4	WJ Evans	Portsmouth	0	HW Shoosmith	Brighton	1
5	WC Kenny	Southampton	0	E Macdonald	Brighton	1
6	A Asher	Southampton	0	FW Comber	Brighton	1
7	HD Osborn	Gosport	0	JW Bridger	Lodsworth	1
8	T Crassweller	Portsmouth	1	W Bridger	Lodsworth	0
9	E Clayton	Portsmouth	½	J Chandler	Lewes	½
10	A Thomas	Bournemouth	½	EJ Reed	Hurst	½
11	HW Daws	IOW	0	HH Blackstock	Brighton	1
12	FA Joyce	IOW	1	Col Kensington	Brighton	0
13	G Deal	Portsmouth	½	HC Hunt	Horsham	½
14	PT Balshaw	Southsea	1	JFV Isaac	Brighton	0
15	GR Sloper	Southampton	1	FE Purchase		0
16	E Clarke	Andover	½	P Johnson		½
	Total		8½	Total		7½

Hampshire v Surrey – 15 Feb 1896 – Basingstoke

Hampshire second match was against Surrey, and although they improved on their heavy loss from the previous season, Surrey were still comfortable 10 – 6 winners. It was reported that the likely winner of this match would probably be the ultimate champions for the year. This proved to be true, as Surrey were the 1895/96 Shannon Champions.

**Hants v Surrey Swindon Advertiser and North Wilts Chronicle 22 Feb 1896**

Hampshire winners were Blake, Elwell, Sloper and Clarke. Hampshire did better this year in persuading the Portsmouth contingent to play, with at least three playing (Crassweller, Clayton and Wheatstone).

At first glance the Hampshire team looked as strong as the one against Sussex with Crassweller and Clayton playing on the same boards in both matches. But lower down Sloper was on board 11 this time compared to board 15 against Sussex, and in general I think the Hampshire team were weaker in this match, specifically towards the tail.

Board	Hampshire	Hants Result	Surrey	Surrey Result
1	JH Blake	1	A Howell	0
2	E Seymour	0	GE Wainwright	1
3	FJH Elwell	1	JH Taylor	0
4	CH Sherrard	0	GA Hooke	1
5	S Clarke	0	HH Cole	1
6	A Asher	½	WT Ingoldshy	½
7	HD Osborn	0	LP Rees	1
8	T Crassweller	½	WE Vyse	½
9	E Clayton	½	FN Braund	½
10	H Gagen	0	WC Bowyer	1
11	GR Sloper	1	HS Leonard	0
12	AW Wheatstone	0	Evan Cresswell	1
13	GH Barclay	½	B McLeod	½
14	PEJ Talbot	0	AW Lemon	1
15	H Seymour	0	SB Baxter	1
16	E Clarke	1	HS Ward	0
	Total	6	Total	10

The Nottinghamshire Guardian published the Blake – Howell game which was annotated by Gunsberg (which I presume was Isidor Gunsberg.

Hampshire v Wiltshire – 29 July 1896 – Salisbury

The final match of the season was against Wiltshire with the annual friendly match played at Salisbury. The venue this time was the residence of one of the Salisbury’s players (WH Jackson), although his kindness was not paid in kind, as the Isle of Wight player Frank Joyce defeated him in their game.

The report in the Southern Echo confirmed that I have the correct amount of matches between the counties, with four matches mentioned as the total played at this time. Hampshire had won two, drawn one and lost one of the matches.

Hampshire won the match 10 – 6 and this year there were no adjournments, although if the games were played at the 20 or 24 moves per hour is not known. The Hampshire winners were Blake, Elwell, Thomson, Joyce, Balshaw, Wheatstone and Draycott.

Hants vs Wilts Southern Echo - Thursday 30 July 1896 — **Hants vs Wilts Southern Echo – Thursday 30 July 1896**

Board	Hampshire	Hants Result	Wiltshire	Wiltshire Result
1	JH Blake	1	Colonel Law	0
2	FJH Elwell	1	HJ King	0
3	HD Osborn	½	Revd JF Welsh	½
4	T Crassweller	½	A Schomberg	½
5	A Asher	0	F Sutton	1
6	WC Kenny	½	CJ Woodrow	½
7	E Clayton	½	PT Mussell	½
8	A Thomson	1	A Watson	0
9	GH Barclay	½	O Leake	½
10	FA Joyce	1	WH Jackson	0
11	EC Clarke	0	T Patton	1
12	WB George	0	AF Sheehy	1
13	PT Balshaw	1	HW Beaven	0
14	AW Wheatstone	1	C Adams	0
15	S Leonard	½	JW Clark	½
16	E Draycott	1	A Goodere	0
	Total	10	Total	6

Hampshire v Kent – Scratch

The match against Kent only seems to have been played when the result would affect who would progress out of the South Easter division. As Hampshire could not qualify for the final stages this season the match was not played.

Hampshire Player Performance

Three matches were played in 1895/96.

Hampshire’s top players JH Blake and FJH Elwell did very well this season, only dropping half a point between them. Joseph Blake played his three games on top board, whilst Francis Elwell was on board two twice and board three once.

Sloper, Balwhaw and Joyce all played one game less, but all managed to win both their games, whilst Crasweller and Clarke were also high scorers.

Hants Player	Win Percentage	Points Scored	Games Played
FJH Elwell	100.0%	3	3
JH Blake	83.3%	2.5	3
GR Sloper	100.0%	2	2
PT Balshaw	100.0%	2	2
FA Joyce	100.0%	2	2
T Crassweller	66.7%	2	3
E Clarke	75.0%	1.5	2
E Clayton	50.0%	1.5	3
E Draycott	100.0%	1	1
A Thomson	100.0%	1	1
CH Sherrard	50.0%	1	2
AW Wheatstone	50.0%	1	2
GH Barclay	50.0%	1	2
S Leonard	50.0%	0.5	1
G Deal	50.0%	0.5	1
A Thomas	50.0%	0.5	1
WC Kenny	25.0%	0.5	2
HD Osborn	16.7%	0.5	3
A Asher	16.7%	0.5	3
HW Daws	0.0%	0	1
EC Clarke	0.0%	0	1
H Seymour	0.0%	0	1
H Gagen	0.0%	0	1
WB George	0.0%	0	1
E Seymour	0.0%	0	1
WJ Evans	0.0%	0	1
S Clarke	0.0%	0	1
PEJ Talbot	0.0%	0	1

Summary

It was a better season for Hampshire with two wins and one loss against the eventual Champions, but the top places remained just out of reach. The Hampshire Chess Association was continuing to grow though, with the introduction of the Hampshire League. This league would see the Portsmouth and Southampton Chess Clubs dominate for a number of years, although Basingstoke also had early successes.

Although a number of the players who represented the Hampshire Chess team played in the Hampshire League, this also gave club players who were not strong enough to represent Hampshire an opportunity to play competitively outside of their club tournaments.