Hampshire County Matches 1896 / 97

I can only find the two Hampshire county chess matches this season, the normal one against Sussex either was not played, or not recorded in the newspapers. From the data sent to me from Anthony Fullton and my fruitless search I think it was the former.

But there were two matches played, the SE Division game against Surrey as well as the annual friendly against Wiltshire.

Hampshire v Surrey 28 Nov 1896
Hampshire v Wiltshire 21 Aug 1897
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 Surrey – 28 Nov 1896 – London

Hampshire first played Surrey who it seems were unhappy about playing at Basingstoke, although this also had proved an unpopular venue for the Portsmouth players. A deal was struck between the captains that if Hampshire played in London this season, Surrey would travel to either Southampton or Portsmouth the following season.

Hants Surrey - Southern Echo - Monday 30 November 1896 — **Hants Surrey – Southern Echo – Monday 30 November 1896**

Meeting Surrey on their home ground was going to be a big ask for Hampshire and all things considered the 9 – 7 loss was a better than expected result. In theory next year Hampshire should be able to field a stronger team? It seems that a late withdrawal did not help Hampshire and their board 11 played on board 16 by mistake (he still lost).

The clubs represented were Southampton (6), Portsmouth (3), Isle of Wight (3), Gosport and Andover (1). Looking at the Surrey side they were mainly represented by Brixton (6) and Battersea (4) with East Dulwich (2), Guildford (2) and Farnham (1) also represented.

I thought I would check some of the Surrey team to see who was playing, who had not played much before. The first player was certainly an interesting (if tragic) find.

Norman Van Lennep – A dutch player who had an estimated grade of 2400. This was the only time he played against Hampshire, although this was not unexpected.

In August 1895 Van Lennep went to England as a reserve entrant in the Hastings 1895 chess tournament, but was not allowed to play, so instead reported on the tournament for his magazine. It was then announced that he had decided to stay; from his letters it appears his father had disowned him unless he ceased his involvement in chess and found a steady job and a wife. He returned to the Netherlands, won at Amsterdam 1897 followed by L.D. Tresling, D. Bleijkmans and A. van Foreest, and killed himself, jumping into the North Sea from a ship at the age of 25.

Mike Fox and Richard James, Addicts’ Corner, citing Hans Ree, The Human Comedy of Chess: A Grandmaster’s Chronicles, Milford, Connecticut: Russell, 1999, ISBN 9781888690064. Anders Thulin, Name Index to Jeremy Gaige’s Chess Tournament Crosstables, An Electronic Edition, 2004-09-01 Edward Winter, “4697. N.W. van Lennep (C.N.s 4663, 4664 & 4681)”, Chess Notes, 2006.)

WJ Evans – Played in 1894, but this was the only other time he played against Hampshire.
AJ Curnock – Was a regular player for Surrey, but in this match he was playing on board 6, whereas he normally played on board 2 to 4.
HW Peachey – Had played twice before, but this was the last time he played against Hampshire.
WE Vyse – Only played three times against Hampshire and this was the last time.

This looks as if it was a strong Surrey side, but not a huge improvement on the one they normally fielded, I don’t think the normal travelling to Basingstoke caused too many issues for Surrey, but it would certainly have been a nice change to play at home. It will be interesting to check the team next season, as the team were due to play in Southampton.

Hampshire’s winners were Blake, Crassweller and Wheeler. Two of the five players who lost were on the bottom two boards which was an indication that Surrey were stronger in their tail. 50% of the games being drawn is also higher than the norm for the county matches at this time.

As I get more used to the players I find Portsmouth’s AW Wheatstone is a player you can use as a benchmark as to how strong Hampshire’s team were. He played fairly often for Hampshire and where he played gave an indication of the team strength. In this match he was on board 13 which was slightly higher than in other matches (although not unusually high). EDO give his an estimated rating of 1696, although this was based on just one tournament.

A close match, but Hampshire had to look to their friendly match against Wiltshire to ensure they did not have a losing season.

Board	Hampshire	Club	Hants Result	Surrey	Club	Surrey Result
1	JH Blake	Southampton	1	NW Van Lennep	Battersea	0
2	FJH Elwell	Southampton	½	HH Cole	Battersea	½
3	E Seymour		½	GE Wainwright	Guildford	½
4	T Crassweller	Portsmouth	1	A Howell	Brixton	0
5	WC Kenny	Southampton	½	WJ Evans	East Dulwich	½
6	Burton	Isle of Wight	0	AJ Curnock	Battersea	1
7	A Asher	Southampton	½	HW Peachey	Unattached	½
8	FA Joyce	Isle of Wight	½	P Howell	Brixton	½
9	O Wheeler		1	H Selfe Leonard	Guildford	0
10	JS Flower	Isle of Wight	½	Evan Cresswell	Battersea	½
11	GR Sloper	Southampton	0	WE Vyse	Brixton	1
12	E Draycott	Gosport	½	B McLeod	Brixton	½
13	AW Wheatstone	Portsmouth	0	J Sargent	Brixton	1
14	Dr Dodd	Southampton	½	FN Braund	Farnham	½
15	W Tipper	Portsmouth	0	HA Jacobs	Brixton	1
16	GH Barclay	Andover	0	F Hauff	East Dulwich	1
		Total	7		Total	9

Hampshire v Wiltshire – 21 August 1897 – Salisbury

Hampshire normally played Wiltshire in July, but this year it was postponed to August as recorded in the Hampshire Advertiser. Hampshire had a much weaker team than the one which played Surrey e.g. Sloper and Wheatstone on board 8 and 9 compared to 11 and 13. A smaller representation from Portsmouth players looks to be the main factor, although Wiltshire were certainly not as strong as Surrey, and it maybe that Hampshire did not put as much pressure on the top players to play?

Hampshire were comfortable 11 to 5 winners (the adjourned game went to Wiltshire) with Blake, Elwell, Clark, Kenny, Asher, Sloper, Clarke, Roome and Dupre bringing home the full point for Hampshire

Hants vs Wilts Hampshire Advertiser - Wednesday 25 August 1897 — **Hants vs Wilts Hampshire Advertiser – Wednesday 25 August 1897**

As per the last season the match was played at the home of one of the Salisbury players, this time it was the president of the Wiltshire County Association, Mr Watson. As per Mr Jackson the previous year he was unsuccessful in his game though, losing to A Asher of Southampton chess club.

Board	Hampshire	Club	Hants Result	Wiltshire	Club	Wiltshire Result
1	JH Blake	Southampton	1	A Rumboll	Wiltshire	0
2	FJH Elwell	Southampton	1	CJ Woodrow	Salisbury	0
3	Spencer Clarke	Andover	1	BT Mugsell	Salisbury	0
4	WC Kenny	Southampton	1	Revd RE Coles	Warminster	0
5	HS Hewett	Isle of Wight	0	B Nash	Wilton	1
6	A Asher	Southampton	1	A Watson	Salisbury	0
7	GH Barclay	Andover	½	A Schomberg	Devizes	½
8	GR Sloper	Southampton	1	F Sutton	Salisbury	0
9	AW Wheatstone	Portsmouth	0	HW Jackson	Salisbury	1
10	EC Clarke	Andover	1	HW Beaven	Trowbridge	0
11	Dr Dodd	Southampton	1	O Gummer	Salisbury	0
12	R Chipperfield	Southampton	½	W Day	Chippenham	½
13	W Boyer	Southampton	0	JH Smith	Devizes	1
14	B Talbot	Andover	0	C Adams	Devizes	1
15	H Roome	Portsmouth	1	FE Young	Salisbury	0
16	GL Dupre	Southampton	1	J Clark	Salisbury	0
		Total	11		Total	5

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

Seven players played in both matches and Joseph Blake was the only one to win both games. Although apart from GH Barclay and AW Wheatstone, the other four players all scored a win and a draw.

With only the two matches there is not much more to say on the season’s performance.

Hants Player	Win Percentage	Points Scored	Games Played
JH Blake	100.0%	2	2
FJH Elwell	75.0%	1.5	2
WC Kenny	75.0%	1.5	2
Dr Dodd	75.0%	1.5	2
A Asher	75.0%	1.5	2
O Wheeler	100.0%	1	1
EC Clarke	100.0%	1	1
Spencer Clarke	100.0%	1	1
H Roome	100.0%	1	1
T Crassweller	100.0%	1	1
GR Sloper	50.0%	1	2
GL Dupre	100.0%	1	1
E Draycott	50.0%	0.5	1
GH Barclay	25.0%	0.5	2
R Chipperfield	50.0%	0.5	1
E Seymour	50.0%	0.5	1
JS Flower	50.0%	0.5	1
FA Joyce	50.0%	0.5	1
W Boyer	0.0%	0	1
AW Wheatstone	0.0%	0	2
W Tipper	0.0%	0	1
Burton	0.0%	0	1
HS Hewett	0.0%	0	1
B Talbot	0.0%	0	1

Summary

Hampshire won one match and lost the other. I am curious as to why the Sussex match did not take place (or it did and I cannot locate it). It maybe that Sussex were too busy playing in their massive 93 board East vs West match, as reported in the Hampshire Telegraph!

Hampshire Telegraph - Saturday 16 October 1897 — Hampshire Telegraph – Saturday 16 October 1897

As can also be seen from the newspaper Surrey would go on to win the 1896/97 Shannon Championship once again (although by default), probably proving Hampshire were just missing out on winning the championship, due to their tough division.