Hampshire County Matches 1900 / 01

Hampshire only played the three matches this season, as the normal match against Sussex was scratched. The faced off against Surrey, Kent and the regular friendly against Wiltshire.

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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.

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Hampshire v Surrey – 20 Oct 1900 – Southampton

Hampshire’s first opponent was Surrey and this was held in Southampton which meant Hampshire had the ability to field a strong team, and Surrey may have struggled to field their best players. I located a few reports on the match and as is the case these state the relevant team’s viewpoint. For instance the Surrey Mirror mentioned that despite arriving at 2:30pm the games could not commence until 4pm. If this has been known earlier then a stronger team may have been available for Surrey.

Meanwhile this was not referred to in the reports from the IOW Observer, or the Hampshire Advertiser, but it was stated in the Hampshire Advertiser that the board three game had been played in advance, and the IOW Observer was more hopeful that the one unfinished game between Elwell and Curnock would be adjudicated as a draw, which would see Hampshire win the match. This was not the case, as the adjudication went Surrey’s way and the match was drawn. The other two adjudicated games had been agreed at the end of the match, as a win for Anspach (Surrey) and WJ Bird (Hampshire).

Looking at the players for Hampshire even though this was played at home we were missing a couple of strong players. WC Kenny and A Asher who normally played on the top 10 boards, were not playing and these may have made the difference? As for Surrey, I think they were stronger at the top than the previous year, but a few of the lower boards were missing. They also defaulted one board which did not help.

The report from the Surrey Mirror is below and it states the important game between GE Wainwright and JH Blake which the Surrey player won. I have located this game, and also two other games and these are included. It is a shame I cannot locate the adjudicated Elwell game, as it would be interesting to see this key game, and if it was a clear win for Surrey.

COUNTY CHESS MATCH. SURREY v. HAMPSHIRE – On Saturday the Surrey county team travelled to Southampton to meet Hampshire in the Championship Competition of the Southern Counties. On arriving about 2:30pm. the players were disappointed to find that no commencement could be made until 4pm. Had this been known earlier a later train could have been utilised, and a stronger team placed in the field. The scene of the contest, 16 players aside, was Scullard’s Hotel, above bar, and the two captains of Surrey and Hants were Mr GE Wainwright, of Guildford, and Mr JH Blake, of Southampton.

The former opened with a Vienna, and initiated attack which Mr Blake disregarded too long, and then failed to find the means of repelling. This was almost the first game finished. There were varying fortunes on the different boards, bat Redhill secured two wins by the efforts of its representatives, Messrs Leonard P Rees and AW Lemon, the former meeting Mr Clayton, the Portsmouth champion, and the latter Mr Bird, one of the Basingstoke representatives. At the close of play the score was six to seven in favour of Hants, while of the three unfinished games left for adjudication, two are probably wins for Surrey and one a win for Hants, which would make the match a draw.

Surrey Mirror – Friday 26 October 1900

Three of the wins for Surrey were located and are given below with light annotations. I could not locate any of the Hampshire wins, but as these were obtained from Surrey publications this is not surprising. George Wainwright was obviously a very strong player, but certainly for the County he was a bit of a bogie player from JH Blake, beating him four times. As Blake only lost twelve times for Hampshire from 95 games this was a large percentage of his losses. Chessbase seems to have issues and I have added these again using RPB Chessboard.

Board	Hampshire	Club	Hants Result	Surrey	Club	Surrey Result
1	JH Blake	Southampton	0	GE Wainwright	Guildford	1
2	FJH Elwell	Southampton	0	AJ Curnock	Battersea	1
3	T Crassweller	Portsmouth	1	HS Barlow	Battersea	0
4	E Draycott	Gosport	1	AW Fisher	Battersea	0
5	B James	Southampton (Res)	½	A Howell	Brixton	½
6	A Thomas	Portsmouth	0	FL Anspach	Herne Hill	1
7	E Clayton	Portsmouth	0	LP Rees	Redhill	1
8	HD Osborn	Gosport	1	H Selfe Leonard	Guildford	0
9	FA Joyce	Newport (IOW)	0	TB Girdlestone	SCCA	1
10	JS Flower	Newport (IOW)	½	WC Bowyer	Weybridge	½
11	WJ Bird	Basingstoke	1	TH Moore	Brixton	0
12	FC Bird	Basingstoke	0	AW Lemon	Redhill	1
13	GR Sloper	Southampton	0	M Shaw Stewart	Herne Hill	1
14	G Wadeson	Portsmouth	1	WT Marshall	Nightingale-Lane	0
15	G Wood	Portsmouth	1	Dr Marshall	SCCA	0
16	GH Barclay	Andover	1	Default		0
	Total		8	Total		8

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Hampshire v Kent – 24 Nov 1900 – London

The Kent match was played in London and whereas the game against Surrey went very well, this was not the case against Kent as they lost 10½ to 5½. Although this was played in London I don’t think this affected the strength of the Hampshire team that much, as it seemed to be on par with the one which drew with Surrey.

The report in the Isle of Wight Observer indicated that Kent were exceptionally strong this season, and had a good chance of winning the championship (spoiler, they did not as Surrey won once again although only by 1 match point).

KENT V HAMPSHIRE – Representative teams from four counties met at the City of London Club on Saturday, Kent playing Hampshire at the same time that Sussex tried conclusions with Surrey. Kent should have a very good chance of winning the Southern Counties championship this season. They have an exceptionally strong team, and what is also important, nearly all their men seem to be playing up to their best form. After the first half dozen boards, Hampshire went down badly.

Isle of Wight Observer – Saturday 08 December 1900

Hampshire two sole winners were F Elwell and E Draycott.

Board	Hampshire	Hants Result	Kent	Kent Result
1	JH Blake	½	OC Muller	½
2	FJH Elwell	1	P Hart-Dyke	0
3	T Crassweller	½	JP Mollard	½
4	H Haydon	0	EL Raymond	1
5	WC Kenny	½	HG Sturton	½
6	E Draycott	1	JH Eastwood	0
7	A Asher	0	GA Felce	1
8	E Clayton	0	HJ Banks	1
9	HD Osborn	0	AR Ropes	1
10	GA Cosser	0	H Storr-Best	1
11	JS Flower	½	WH Joanes	½
12	WJ Bird	½	E Provis	½
13	GR Sloper	0	WB Dixon	1
14	FC Bird	0	J Roe	1
15	RH Wadeson	½	JH Biggs	½
16	G Wood	½	C Chapman	½
	Total	5½	Total	10½

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Hampshire v Sussex – Scratch

Hampshire’s third match was against Sussex, but due to the draw against Surrey and the loss to Kent this match was not played. Sussex had lost 6½ – 9½ against Surrey on the same day as the Hants – Kent match. Kent has also beaten Sussex 11½ – 4½, and this was therefore a dead rubber.

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Hampshire v Wiltshire – 4 July 1901 – Salisbury

As usual, the last match of the season was the friendly against Wiltshire, which was again held in Salisbury (Laverstock) on a Wednesday afternoon at the beginning of July. This was a comfortable 11- 5 win for Hampshire with JH Blake, FJH Elwell, E Draycott, A Thomson, DHH Wassell, SD Caws, EC Clarke and F Martin the winners.

These matches seemed to be played mid-week rather than weekends, which I found quite surprising, as I would have thought this would affect people’s ability to play? From Salisbury’s point of view with five Revd’s mid week would have made it easier for them to be available, as weekend’s in July would not be that convenient?

Board	Hampshire	Team	Hants Result	Kent	Kent Result
1	JH Blake	Southampton	1	Revd AG Gordon Ross	0
2	FJH Elwell	Southampton	1	A Rumboll	0
3	WC Kenny	Southampton	0	Revd JTC Chatto	1
4	E Draycott	Gosport	1	Revd CJF Welsh	0
5	A Thomson	Bournemouth	1	CA Plaister	0
6	A Asher	Southampton	0	A Schomberg	1
7	RH Wadeson	Portsmouth	½	Revd RE Coles	½
8	G Wood	Portsmouth	½	ET Hill	½
9	GH Barclay	Andover	½	R Borradish	½
10	DHH Wassell	Petersfield	1	A Wapa	0
11	SD Caws	Cowes	1	Revd EE Firth	0
12	EC Clarke	Andover	1	WH Jackson	0
13	M Hart	Gosport	½	FW Clark	½
14	FC Bird	Basingstoke	½	HW Beaven	½
15	W Tipper	Portsmouth	½	HE Pallin	½
16	F Martin	Portsmouth	1	HC Watton	0
	Total		11	Total	5

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Hampshire Player Performance

With only the three matches there is limited information from the data this season. E Draycott the HCA Secretary from 1899 to 1903 had the best performance winning all his three games two on board four and one on six. The Hampshire Adjudicators both scored two points from three games with Frank Elwell (1899 to at least 1940) scoring two wins and a loss on board two whilst G Wood (1899 – 1921) has a win and two draws.

A number of players managed one win and a draw from their two games and keeping to the HCA Officers this included GH Barclay who was one of the Hampshire SCCU delegates

Individual player performance is detailed below in a sortable table.

Hants Player	Win Percentage	Points Scored	Games Played
E Draycott	100.0%	3	3
FJH Elwell	66.7%	2	3
G Wood	66.7%	2	3
JH Blake	50.0%	1.5	3
FC Bird	16.7%	0.5	3
T Crassweller	75.0%	1.5	2
WJ Bird	75.0%	1.5	2
GH Barclay	75.0%	1.5	2
JS Flower	50.0%	1	2
RH Wadeson	50.0%	1	2
HD Osborn	50.0%	1	2
WC Kenny	25.0%	0.5	2
A Asher	0.0%	0	2
E Clayton	0.0%	0	2
GR Sloper	0.0%	0	2
G Wadeson	100.0%	1	1
F Martin	100.0%	1	1
EC Clarke	100.0%	1	1
SD Caws	100.0%	1	1
DHH Wassell	100.0%	1	1
A Thomson	100.0%	1	1
B James	50.0%	0.5	1
W Tipper	50.0%	0.5	1
M Hart	50.0%	0.5	1
A Thomas	0.0%	0	1
H Haydon	0.0%	0	1
FA Joyce	0.0%	0	1
GA Cosser	0.0%	0	1

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Summary

Hampshire’s best result was probably their draw against Surrey, as although they had a comfortable win against Wiltshire this was a less important friendly. But the loss to Kent by such a large margin was a bit of a surprise even though Kent were very strong this season.

As some background on Hampshire Chess this season the Hampshire Trophy was won by Basingstoke (8 teams took place in two divisions with the winners playing in the final). The Hampshire Chess Officers had not changed since the last season:

• R Chipperfield – President
• E Draycott – Hon. Secretary and Treasurer
• GH Barclay, JH Blake, E Draycott – SCCU Delegates

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Gallery

A selection of newspaper cuttings on the various matches.

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Acknowledgements and Sources

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