Hampshire County Matches 1907 / 08

Hampshire played three County matches this season with two losses and one win. The SCCU amended their qualifying sections which saw Surrey move away from the SE section and Hampshire would not meet them again until 1913. The reason for the change was likely the formation of the Middlesex Chess Association. Correspondence chess was also becoming more popular, and Hampshire played two matches against Gloucestershire and Essex.

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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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SCCU Section Changes

Hampshire had played in the SE Section along with Surrey, Kent and Sussex since the SCCU Championship was formed. They continued to play in this section in the 1907 / 1908 season, but Surrey were moved to the Central Section. Although the SE Section also had Berkshire and Buckinghamshire only Sussex, Kent and Hampshire were active this season (as reported in the West Sussex County Times – Saturday 05 October 1907.)

The Daily News explained that the present travelling issues were problematic and that the changes should bring more counties into the fold, as well as resolving the issues with the long distance matches.

The BCM also covered the re-grouping of the counties as detailed below. If like me you had not heard of Huntingdonshire, this is now part of Cambridgeshire (1974).

Probably the biggest change was Middlesex joining the SCCU. This was a very strong Chess County joining the competition and they hit the ground running winning the County Championship for the next three seasons.

As you will see later Kent beat Hampshire heavily, but they were no match for Middlesex losing by six points. Their team was also probably stronger than the one which faced Hampshire as can be seen from WM Brooke playing on board 15 in this match, and 12 in the Hampshire match.

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Hampshire 7½ Sussex 8½ – Sept 28th 1907 – Chichester

Hampshire’s first match was against Sussex and was played in Chichester. As reported in the Isle of Wight County Press the match was keenly contested, and at the close of play Sussex led 7½ – 6½ with two games sent for adjudication. These were both adjudicated as draws, seeing Sussex win the match by a point.

Hampshire were dominant on the top boards, winning on 1 to 4, but Sussex took over on the middle boards taking the full point on boards 5 to 9. From boards 10 to 16 is was more nick and tuck, with five draws and a win for both counties.

Hampshire winners were JH Blake, Sir GA Thomas, FJH Elwell, Spencer Clarke and E Clayton.

Board	Hampshire	Club	Result	Sussex	Club	Result
1	JH Blake	Southampton	1	EG Reed	Brighton	0
2	Sir GA Thomas	Portsmouth	1	JP Mollard	Arundel	0
3	FJH Elwell	Southampton	1	HE Dobell	Hastings	0
4	Spencer Clarke	Whitchurch	1	T Durant	Worthing	0
5	E Draycott	Gosport	0	JA Watt	Hastings	1
6	FA Joyce	IOW	0	AJ Field	Worthing	1
7	Dr TH Letchworth	Bournemouth	0	NE Hill	Brighton	1
8	WC Kenny	Southampton	0	J Storr Best	Brighton	1
9	JS Flower	Ryde	0	Castle Leaver	Brighton	1
10	Revd HS Wansborough		½	CJA Wade	Heathfield	½
11	E Clayton	Portsmouth	1	J Creevy	Uckfield	0
12	A Asher	Southampton	½	HJ Stephenson	Hastings	½
13	HD Osborn	Portsmouth	½	JW Wright	Hastings	½
14	G Wood		½	FE Purchas	Brighton	½
15	DHH Wassell	Petersfield	½	Revd HA Stead	Uckfield	½
16	HJ Penwill	Southampton	0	Col Kensington	Hove	1
	Total		7½	Total		8½

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Hampshire 6 v Kent 10 – Nov 2nd 1907 – London

Hampshire next met Kent, with the match as usual being played in London. The match was not close with Kent winning 11½ – 4½. As reported in the BCM Hampshire struggled to obtain several strong players, and also two players missed the train, which did not help matters.

Hampshire winners were FJH Elwell, WR Neve and RG Stark.

Board	Hampshire	Club	Result	Kent	Club	Result
1	JH Blake	Southampton	0	OC Muller	Lee	1
2	FJH Elwell	Southampton	1	JC Waterman	Tenterden	0
3	TE Haydon	London	½	EL Raymond	Tonbridge	½
4	Spencer Clarke	Whitchurch	0	WB Dixon	Canterbury	1
5	E Draycott	Portsmouth	½	E Creswell	Bromley	½
6	Dr TH Letchworth	Bournemouth	0	PHJ O’Connor	Plumstead	1
7	Absent		0	C Chapman	Sevonoaks	1
8	WR Neve	London	1	Revd WE Evill	Canterbury	0
9	WC Kenny	Southampton	0	TS Connan	Tunbridge Wells	1
10	G Wood	Portsmouth	0	AJ Prichard	Lee	1
11	GR Sloper	London	0	BW Hamilton	Lewisham	1
12	GH Barclay	Andover	0	WM Brooke	Tunbridge Wells	1
13	RG Stark	Basingstoke	1	JH Eastwood	Lee	0
14	DHH Wassell	Petersfield	½	WK Walford	Lydenham	½
15	HJ Penwill	Southampton	0	CF Corke	Sevonoaks	1
16	Absent		0	G Hanson	Woolwich	1
	Total		4½	Total		11½

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Hampshire 8½ v Wiltshire 7½- July 18th 1908 – Salisbury

Hampshire’s final match was their annual friendly against Wiltshire. As per usual this was played outside and hosted by one of the Wiltshire players. Hampshire normally had a weaker team than their ones in the SCCU, but they still brought JH Blake who played the Revd AGG Ross again. After losing the first 5 games against Blake, Ross recorded his first win¹ in what may have been their last pairing.

Board	Hampshire	Club	Result	Wiltshire	Result
1	JH Blake	Southampton	0	Revd AG Gordon Ross	1
2	Spencer Clarke	Whitchurch	0	A Rumboll	1
3	WH Curtis		1	FE Young	0
4	WC Kenny	Southampton	0	AE Stainer	1
5	Dr TH Letchworth	Bournemouth	1	F Sutton	0
6	E Clarke		½	Dr Cole	½
7	SD Caws	IOW	1	JW Clark	0
8	GH Barclay	Andover	1	VE Stoker	0
9	D Scholes		1	O Gummer	0
10	WJJ Eaton		½	HW Beaven	½
11	A Taylor		0	T Brinsmead	1
12	O Knofe		1	A Watson	0
13	PEJ Talbot		1	AF Chater	0
14	F Martin		0	Revd G Watson	1
15	H McGrath		½	HO Boger	½
	Total		8½	Total	7½

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Hampshire Player Performance

Hampshire played three matches, but only four players played in all of them. None of these players did particularly with only three points scored from these twelve games. This included Joseph Blake who had a poor season by his high standards, losing in both the Kent and Wiltshire matches.

On a more positive front, Frank Elwell won both his games and eight players won the one game they played, including the future Sir GA Thomas who was also promoted to board two above Frank Elwell this season.

Individual player performance is detailed below in a sortable table.

Hants Player	Win Percentage	Points Scored	Games Played
FJH Elwell	100.0%	2	2
RG Stark	100.0%	1	1
Sir GA Thomas	100.0%	1	1
WH Curtis	100.0%	1	1
SD Caws	100.0%	1	1
O Knofe	100.0%	1	1
D Scholes	100.0%	1	1
E Clayton	100.0%	1	1
PEJ Talbot	100.0%	1	1
GH Barclay	50.0%	1	2
DHH Wassell	50.0%	1	2
Spencer Clarke	33.3%	1	3
Dr TH Letchworth	33.3%	1	3
JH Blake	33.3%	1	3
TE Haydon	50.0%	0.5	1
HD Osborn	50.0%	0.5	1
WJJ Eaton	50.0%	0.5	1
E Clarke	50.0%	0.5	1
Revd HS Wansborough	50.0%	0.5	1
H McGrath	50.0%	0.5	1
A Asher	50.0%	0.5	1
G Wood	25.0%	0.5	2
E Draycott	25.0%	0.5	2
GR Sloper	0.0%	0	1
F Martin	0.0%	0	1
FA Joyce	0.0%	0	1
A Taylor	0.0%	0	1
WR Neve	0.0%	0	1
JS Flower	0.0%	0	1
HJ Penwill	0.0%	0	2
WC Kenny	0.0%	0	3

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Summary

I am not sure how well the SCCU changes went down with Hampshire, but for the foreseeable future Hampshire were only going to have three County Chess matches each season, unless they won the SE Division. One area where they seemed to fill this gap, was with the growth in Correspondence Chess.

Two matches were played although there was certainly a difference in the number of boards in each match. The match against Essex had 56 and Gloucestershire 12 boards. Hampshire won the first 33½ – 21½ and the second 6½ – 5½ (no details on who played though).

The Hampshire Trophy attracted ten teams, three from Southampton and Portsmouth, and one each from Andover, Basingstoke. Petersfield and Winchester. The North-West Division was won by Southampton B, and the South-East Division by Portsmouth A. In the final Portsmouth A won 3½ – 2½.

The Hampshire Officers remained the same as the previous season.

• 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 Southern Echo.

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Acknowledgements and Sources

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1. In the 1905/06 match Revd AG Gordon Ross won by default against an absent Blake. ↩︎