Hampshire County Matches 1909 / 10

Hampshire played three County matches this season, two in the SCCU and the normal friendly against Wiltshire. In addition to the OTB Matches they also played two Correspondence matches against Middlesex (22 – 28 loss) and Northants (20 – 20 draw).

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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 6 Sussex 10 – Oct 23rd 1909 – Portsmouth

Hampshire’s first match was against Sussex and surprisingly this was held in Portsmouth. The fixtures normally alternated each year, and last year it was held in Southsea. Looking ahead the match continued to be held in Portsmouth and it is likely that this was something set in place by the SCCU.

The location did not help Hampshire though, as Sussex were comfortable winners. The Hastings and St Leonard Observer had a detailed match report which I reproduce below, including the clock time misunderstanding on board 5. Also of note were the current strong form of JH Blake and G Thomas who had tied for 1st in the 1909 British Championship (lost the tie-break) and won the Open tournament in Hastings respectively.

County Chess Match: Hampshire V. Sussex.
The first of this season’s inter-county matches the Southern Counties competition was played last Saturday at Portsmouth, when Sussex and Hampshire met to try conclusions.

Both counties had good teams, and were well represented. Mr Paley Hughes leading Sussex, while Mr J. H. Blake, who tied for the British championship in the recent National Congress, was leader for Hampshire, and Mr. G. Thomas, who won the open tournament the Hastings Congress last Whitsuntide, took second board, and both did their county good service; passing from these two boards Sussex were overwhelmingly the better team and a spirited match ended in good victory for Sussex.

A notable feature of the openings adopted was their open character, only one French and not a single Queen’s in the list, and vigorous enterprising play ensued. the call time two unfinished games were adjudicated, and the score gave Sussex 10 to Hampshire 6.

A curious blunder occurred at board 5. Mr. Dobell. believing he was well within his time, walked round the various tables to see how the match was progressing; returning to his board his opponent had apparently been some time considering the position, and now moved, observing: “This my 29th move and you have still make your 30th. but have exceeded your time by five minutes. must claim the game.” Astonished. Mr. Dobell looked at the clocks, and then pointed out that he had twenty minutes in which to make his next move, while his opponent had exceeded his time by five minutes. Tableaux! Mr. Kenny could only resign. Afterwards the game was played out its merits, and Mr. Dobell won.

Hastings and St Leonards Observer – Saturday 30 October 1909

Hampshire winners were JH Blake, Sir GA Thomas (Mr at this time, rather than Sir), HD Osborn and HW Daws all from the top half, which again showed where Hampshire’s strength and weaknesses were.

The British Chess Magazine published the board 4 game between Spencer Clarke and WT Pierce. Unfortunately for Hampshire this was a loss, but I give the game below.

Board	Hampshire	Club	Result	Sussex	Club	Result
1	JH Blake	Southampton	1	W Paley Hughes	Hastings	0
2	Sir GA Thomas	Portsmouth	1	HW Butler	Brighton	0
3	FJH Elwell	Southampton	½	NE Hill	Brighton	½
4	Spencer Clarke	Andover	0	WT Pierce	Hove	1
5	WC Kenny	Southampton	0	HE Dobell	Hastings	1
6	JS Flower	Isle of Wight	0	EG Reed	Brighton	1
7	HD Osborn	Portsmouth	1	Castle Leaver	Brighton	0
8	HW Daws	Isle of Wight	1	AJ Field	Hove	0
9	G Wood	Portsmouth	½	CJA Wade	Henfield	½
10	E Clayton	Portsmouth	½	HJ Stephenson	Hastings	½
11	W Veitch		0	FE Puchas	Brighton	1
12	GI Gribble	Fareham	0	HT Grover	Brighton	1
13	DHH Wassell	Petersfield	0	EW Morris	Uckfield	1
14	M Whitehead		0	J Chandler	Lewes	1
15	Prof EL Watkins	Hartley College	0	F Brook	Brighton	1
16	Prof WF Mason	Hartley College	½	EC Harvey	Brighton	½
	Total		6	Total		10

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Hampshire 7½ – Kent 8½ – Nov 13th 1909 – London

Hampshire were next traveling to London to play Kent and this year they produced a very good performance, losing by the closest of margins.

Hampshire winners were WR Neve, GR Sloper, W Veitch and RG Stark. In the AGM minutes it mentioned the death of Mr Sloper and this was his last game for the County. He had represented the County since their formation, and played in their first friendly match in 1887 against Sussex.

Mr Sloper originally played for Southampton, and later was based in London, but still represented Hampshire as well as being a SCCU delegate. Below is his Hampshire performance against each county, although he only played against Wiltshire until 1899 (which gives an indication of when he moved to London).

Board	Hampshire	Club	Result	Kent	Club	Result
1	JH Blake	Southampton	½	OC Muller		½
2	FJH Elwell	Southampton	½	JC Waterman		½
3	TE Haydon	London	½	EL Raymond		½
4	RF Barlow	Unattached	½	WB Dixon		½
5	Spencer Clarke	Andover	0	HG Cole		1
6	WR Neve	Unattached	1	C Hammond		0
7	HD Osborn	Portsmouth	0	Evan Cresswell		1
8	A Asher	Southampton	0	C Chapman		1
9	GR Sloper	London	1	A Clark		0
10	HJ Penwill	Southampton	½	CH Lorch		½
11	G Wood	Portsmouth	½	AI Pritchard		½
12	W Veitch	Southampton	1	JA Detmold		0
13	FN Braund	Isle of Wight	½	Rev CE Hughes		½
14	DHH Wassell	Petersfield	0	G Hanson		1
15	RG Stark	Basingstoke	1	FL Hutchings		0
16	HA Way	Portsmouth	0	WM Brooke		1
	Total		7½	Total		8½

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Hampshire 9½ – Wiltshire 4½- July 15th 1910 – Salisbury

Hampshire’s final match was their annual friendly against Wiltshire. Hampshire brought a strong team, with both JH Blake and FJH Elwell in action. The match was held outside, unlike the previous year and this year it was Mr and Mrs Sutton who were the hosts. Revd CJF Welsh was not even named, just stated as Bishop of Trinidad! I have left as Revd, for player tracking purposes. This was his first game against Hampshire since 1904 and would prove to be his last.

Hampshire continued their dominant ways of the last couple of years, and were comfortable 9½ – 4½ winners. JH Blake, FJH Elwell, PA MacMahon, H Streeten, Revd EB James, AG Bennett and WH Killick were the Hampshire winners.

Board	Hampshire	Result	Wiltshire	Result
1	JH Blake	1	Revd AG Gordon Ross	0
2	FJH Elwell	1	A Rumbell	0
3	Spencer Clark	½	Revd CJF Welsh	½
4	PA MacMahon	1	F Sutton	0
5	A Asher	½	A Schomberg	½
6	E Clayton	0	FE Young	1
7	WH Curtis	½	A Matthews	½
8	FJ Hill	½	HW Beaven	½
9	HL Streeter	1	WJ Naish	0
10	Revd EB James	1	JC Clarke	0
11	WF Sandell	0	H Boyer	1
12	AG Bennett	1	KJ Bradfield	0
13	WH Killick	1	FA Bradbeere	0
14	AJ Taylor	½	WH Jackson	½
	Total	9½	Total	4½

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Hampshire Player Performance

Hampshire played three matches, but only two players played in all of them. One of the reasons for this is that one match was in Portsmouth, one in London and the other in Wiltshire, which was also normally a much weaker Hampshire team. But Joseph Blake and Francis Elwell both played in all three matches and managed two and half and two points respectively.

A number of other players won their one game, but no-one else scored more than 50%.

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
FJH Elwell	66.7%	2	3
Revd EB James	100.0%	1	1
Sir GA Thomas	100.0%	1	1
HL Streeter	100.0%	1	1
WR Neve	100.0%	1	1
HW Daws	100.0%	1	1
RG Stark	100.0%	1	1
GR Sloper	100.0%	1	1
AG Bennett	100.0%	1	1
PA MacMahon	100.0%	1	1
WH Killick	100.0%	1	1
W Veitch	50.0%	1	2
G Wood	50.0%	1	2
HD Osborn	50.0%	1	2
TE Haydon	50.0%	0.5	1
WH Curtis	50.0%	0.5	1
FN Braund	50.0%	0.5	1
HJ Penwill	50.0%	0.5	1
AJ Taylor	50.0%	0.5	1
FJ Hill	50.0%	0.5	1
Prof WF Mason	50.0%	0.5	1
RF Barlow	50.0%	0.5	1
E Clayton	25.0%	0.5	2
A Asher	25.0%	0.5	2
Spencer Clarke	16.7%	0.5	3
WC Kenny	0.0%	0	1
GI Gribble	0.0%	0	1
JS Flower	0.0%	0	1
WF Sandell	0.0%	0	1
Prof EL Watkins	0.0%	0	1
HA Way	0.0%	0	1
M Whitehead	0.0%	0	1
DHH Wassell	0.0%	0	2

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Summary

I think Hampshire just failed to have a great season. Losing to Kent by the narrowest of margins showed they could match the stronger counties, Kent would go on to win the SE section, progressing to the final, before losing to Middlesex in the Championship finals.

Hampshire again played two Correspondence matches this year, losing 22 – 28 to Middlesex and drawing 20 all against Northamptonshire. Middlesex won the English County Championship by beating Lancashire and it seems with their Correspondence win against Hampshire their high level of play was not limited to OTB chess.

In other activities in Hampshire Chess, the Hampshire Trophy attracted ten teams, four from Southampton, three from Portsmouth, and one each from Andover, Basingstoke and a new club Hartley University College.

This was a college which would eventually be renamed Southampton University, who still play in the Southampton Chess League. The college was started with a local eccentric – Henry Robinson Hartley. It was a great start by Hartley as they won the NW division, winning all their matches. Meanwhile in the SE division Portsmouth A won narrowly ahead of Portsmouth C. In the final Portsmouth A proved too strong for Hartley winning 4 – 1.

You can see a number of the players in the match below representing Hampshire, including Hartley’s two Professors.

The AGM also reported that the county during the year had suffered great loss by the death of two prominent members of the Association, G. H. Barclay and G.R Sloper. Mr Barclay for years was president of the Andover club, and for two years, president of the Association. I gave Mr Sloper’s record for Hampshire earlier but Mr Barclay’s is below. He performed well against Wiltshire, but poorly against the stronger SCCU teams. As has been seen Hampshire struggled against these counties on the lower boards where Mr Barclay would normally play.

But Mr Barclay obviously brought other skills to the fold, with his secretarial duties for Andover and Hampshire.

As reported earlier both Joseph Blake and George Thomas had congress successes. In addition George Thomas won the 1st class open section in the Kent and Sussex Congress in 1909 scoring all wins.

After one year as the President WC Kenny was replaced by Joseph Blake. There were changes to the delegates to the SCCU, but apart from that the other Offices remained the same.

• JH Blake – President
• HJ Penwill – Hon. Secretary and Treasurer
• JH Blake – Match Captain
• FJH Elwell, G Wood – Adjudicators
• JH Blake, RF Barlow, WR Neve – SCCU Delegates
• HD Osbourne and PEJ Talbot – Trophy Competition Committee

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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