Hampshire County Matches 1906 / 07

The days of Hampshire challenging in the SCCU seemed to be over, as another season where Hampshire lost to the Sussex and Kent and the Surrey match was not played. They did manage to draw against Wiltshire in their annual friendly, but after dominating this fixture for many years this was not a particularly good result either.

Update Dec 2024: JH Blake’s win on board one in the Correspondence Match against Devon (via Britbase)

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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 7 Sussex 9 – Sept 22nd 1906 – Portsmouth

Hampshire’s first match was against Sussex and this time it was played in Portsmouth. A match of two halves it seems, with Hampshire scoring five wins on the first five boards, but only one win and two draws on the remaining boards. Strength in depth looks to be an issue for Hampshire. Or maybe it was Sussex’s ability to bring a more balanced team to the match.

Although a better result than the previous season, this was a disappointing loss, especially with winning the top five boards. The Sussex team were probably weaker than the previous year, Stephenson was on bd 14 last season and 10 for this match.

Hampshire winners were JH Blake, FJH Elwell, GA Thomas, TE Haydon, RF Barlow and JS Flower.

Board	Hampshire	Club	Result	Sussex	Club	Result
1	JH Blake	Southampton	1	EG Reed	Brighton	0
2	FJH Elwell	Southampton	1	JP Mollard	Arundel	0
3	Sir GA Thomas	Portsmouth	1	CJA Wade	Henfield	0
4	TE Haydon	London	1	Castle Leaver	Brighton	0
5	RF Barlow	London	1	J Storr Best	Brighton	0
6	WC Kenny	Southampton	0	AJ Field	Worthing	1
7	JS Flower	Ryde	1	JW Bridger	Petworth	0
8	Dr TH Letchworth	Bournemouth	0	J Creevy	Uckfield	1
9	FA Joyce	IOW	0	IE Mannington	Hastings	1
10	Revd HS Wansborough		0	HJ Stephenson	Hastings	1
11	E Clayton	Portsmouth	0	FE Purchas	Brighton	1
12	GI Gribble	IOW	0	AE Infield	Worthing	1
13	HD Osborn	Portsmouth	½	F Brook	Brighton	½
14	H Targett	Southampton	½	S Hunt	Horsham	½
15	GH Barclay	Andover	0	H Barr	Brighton	1
16	J Slatter	Portsmouth	0	J Chandler	Lewes	1
	Total		7	Total		9

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Hampshire 6 v Kent 10 – Nov 24th 1906 – London

Hampshire next met Kent, with the match being played in London. Kent were comfortable winners and like the Sussex match Hampshire did far better on the top boards with Hampshire scoring 4½ from the first 5 boards. Lower down was more problematic with only 1 point scored on boards 9 to 16. Hampshire were not helped by the fact that boards 7 and 13 were defaulted.

Kent were very strong this year and they also defeated Surrey for the first time in the SCCU championship winning 11 – 5. This was from a larger 50 board match between the counties, which Kent also won 37½ – 12½. Kent went on to win their first Shannon Championship beating Devon in the final.

Hampshire winners were JH Blake, F Elwell, T Haydon, W Neve.

Board	Hampshire	Club	Result	Kent	Result
1	JH Blake	Southampton	1	OC Muller	0
2	FJH Elwell	Southampton	1	EL Raymond	0
3	TE Haydon	London	1	CH Lorch	0
4	WR Neve	London	1	PHJ O’Connor	0
5	RF Barlow	Unattached	½	C Chapman	½
6	Dr TH Letchworth	Bournemouth	0	Evan Cresswell	1
7	HD Osborn (d)	Portsmouth	0	WB Dixon	1
8	GR Sloper	London	½	WM Brooke	½
9	GH Barclay	Andover	0	TS Connan	1
10	RG Stark	Basingstoke	0	HC Sturton	1
11	WS Fenwick	London	½	JA Detmold	½
12	HJ Penwill	Southampton	0	AJ Prichard	1
13	GH Caws (d)	Cowes	0	JH Eastwood	1
14	FG Binning	Southampton	0	H Storr-Best	1
15	HA Way	Southampton	½	DW Earle	½
16	G Spreadbury	Portsmouth	0	WF Dray	1
	Total		6	Total	10

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Hampshire v Surrey – Scratch

With Hampshire losing their two matches against Sussex and Kent it seems the match against Surrey was not played. This was probably as neither Hampshire or Surrey could progress in the SCCU Championship (Sussex also lost to Kent).

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Hampshire 7½ v Wiltshire 7½- July 13th 1907 – Salisbury

Hampshire’s final match was their annual friendly against Wiltshire. No more could this be counted as an easy win for Hampshire, and this proved the case this year, with a tough match ending in a tie. The Hampshire team was primarily sourced by Southampton and Bournemouth players, with just the one Andover and no Portsmouth or Isle of Wight teams represented.

Hampshire winners were Spencer Clarke, WC Kenny, D McIntrye, GH Barclay and W Veitch.

The Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser reported on the match as detailed below.

CHESS WILTS v. HANTS. This annual outdoor match was played in charming weather in the gardens attached to Mr. Parker’s (President of the Salisbury Club) residence in Castle Street. Salisbury. Mr. and Mrs. Parker and their two daughters entertained most hospitably, a marquee being pitched on the lawn. All expressed regret the absence of the Bishop of Trinidad, who had hoped once more to have taken port in this now time-honoured match. Messrs. Elwell and Schomberg on behalf the respective teams, thanked their kind entertainers for their admirable and comfortable arrangements, to which their hosts suitably responded. It will in the memory of our readers that Wilts won last year.

Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser – Saturday 20 July 1907

Board	Hampshire	Club	Result	Wiltshire	Club	Result
1	JH Blake	Southampton	½	A Rumboll	Calne	½
2	FJH Elwell	Southampton	0	Revd BM Adams	Sarum	1
3	J Parkinson	Bournemouth	½	A Schomberg	Devizes	½
4	Spencer Clarke	Bournemouth	1	W Hey	Melksham	0
5	WC Kenny	Southampton	1	Sir F Cunningham	Devizes	0
6	AJ Bennett	Bournemouth	0	Dr Cole	Devizes	1
7	H Targett	Southampton	½	HW Reavan	Trowbridge	½
8	A Thomoson	Southampton	0	GD Prater	Sarum	1
9	D McIntrye	Bournemouth	1	Dr Ward	Codford	0
10	WB George	Bournemouth	½	A Watson	Sarum	½
11	GH Barclay	Andover	1	AG Bailey	Melksham	0
12	W Veitch	Southampton	1	Rev G Watson	Devizes	0
13	GM Frean	Bournemouth	0	C Adams	Devizes	1
14	JA Waldron	Bournemouth	½	Rev ES Barker	Swindon	½
15	EE Weedon	Southampton	0	H Matthews	Sarum	1
	Total		7½	Total		7½

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Hampshire Player Performance

Hampshire played three matches and top board JH Blake won both his SCCU matches against strong opposition, and drew his Wiltshire one. TE Haydon was the only player who played two or more games and won all his games, whilst F Elwell and R Barlow also scored +1 from their three and two games respectively.

Individual player performance is detailed below in a sortable table.

Hants Player	Win Percentage	Points Scored	Games Played
JH Blake	83.3%	2.5	3
TE Haydon	100.0%	2	2
FJH Elwell	66.7%	2	3
RF Barlow	75.0%	1.5	2
D McIntrye	100.0%	1	1
JS Flower	100.0%	1	1
Sir GA Thomas	100.0%	1	1
Spencer Clarke	100.0%	1	1
W Veitch	100.0%	1	1
WR Neve	100.0%	1	1
WC Kenny	50.0%	1	2
GH Barclay	33.3%	1	3
GR Sloper	50.0%	0.5	1
H Targett	50.0%	0.5	1
HA Way	50.0%	0.5	1
J Parkinson	50.0%	0.5	1
JA Waldron	50.0%	0.5	1
R Targett	50.0%	0.5	1
WB George	50.0%	0.5	1
WS Fenwick	50.0%	0.5	1
HD Osborn	25.0%	0.5	2
A Thomoson	0.0%	0	1
AJ Bennett	0.0%	0	1
E Clayton	0.0%	0	1
EE Weedon	0.0%	0	1
FA Joyce	0.0%	0	1
FG Binning	0.0%	0	1
G Spreadbury	0.0%	0	1
GH Caws	0.0%	0	1
GI Gribble	0.0%	0	1
GM Frean	0.0%	0	1
HJ Penwill	0.0%	0	1
J Slatter	0.0%	0	1
Revd HS Wansborough	0.0%	0	1
RG Stark	0.0%	0	1
Dr TH Letchworth	0.0%	0	2

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Summary

Although I have stated that the season was poor, on reflection it was a bit better than original thought. The winners of the SCCU Championship were Kent, and Hampshire performed the best against them of all their opponents (including Devon).

Hampshire also played a Correspondence Match against Devon which they drew 30 all.

Update: Dec 2024. JH Blake’s win against HL Bowles is in Britbase, via the Western Daily Mercury. This was a crushing win playing White in a French Classical.

The Hampshire Trophy was won by Basingstoke. There were two sections with the NE having six and the SE five teams. After finishing bottom of the NW division the previous season Basingstoke turned things around, first winning the NW division (winning all matches) and then beating the SE division winner Portsmouth C in the final.

This season the matches were over five boards rather than the normal six or seven and this was probably one of the main reasons for the increased number of teams entering, up 11 from 8. Four of these were from Southampton and three from Portsmouth, but Winchester entered (probably for the first time).

The main change this season as detailed in the 1907 AGM was the stepping down of R Chipperfield as the HCA President. R Chipperfield had held this post since the creation of the HCA in 1890 but wished to resign because of his age. According to the article in the Sotonpedia he was born in 1817 and would have been coming up to 90 at the AGM.

There was some discussion that Mr Lee an MP should take on the role, but in the end this GH Barclay of Andover chess club was voted in, although this was on the understanding that they would look to fill the role with a younger man. All the other roles remained the same as the previous year.

• GH Barclay – President
• HJ Penwill – Hon. Secretary and Treasurer
• JH Blake – Match Captain
• FJH Elwell, G Wood – Adjudicators
• GR Sloper, JH Blake, RF Barlow – SCCU Delegates

The AGM was held at the Southampton Chess Club’s headquarters as reported in the Hampshire Independent.

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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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