Hampshire County Matches 1910 / 11

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 three Correspondence matches against Somerset (20½ – 13½ win), Northants (16½ – 23½ loss) and Devon (13½ – 16½ loss).

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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 9½ Sussex 6½ – Oct 29th 1910 – Portsmouth

Hampshire’s first match was against Sussex and once again was held in Portsmouth. I have two reports, one from a Hampshire newspaper and one from the Sussex perspective. These normally have a completely different view on the match, but in this case they both highlighted that Sussex had lost players from the previous season, and on the bottom boards Sussex had new players to the County scene.

If you compare teams from 1909 to 1910 you will notice that some of the regular Sussex players were on a higher board and Hampshire had the opposite. Some of the Hampshire board changes from 1909 to 1910:

• WC Kenny on board 8 rather than 5
• HD Osborn on board 9 rather than 7
• DHH Wassell on 15 compared to 13
• E Clayton on 7 compared to 10

This was not the case for all players though, as E Clayton was promoted from board 10 to 7. As a regular since 1887 this is unlikely to have been due an increase in strength. As an aside, E.Clayton was another long serving Hampshire player, playing 72 games from 1887 to 1929. Unlike a number of other Hampshire players he seemed to struggle against Wiltshire, but he was probably playing on a higher board than normal in these matches. He also met some of the stronger Wiltshire players such as Revd CJF Welsh, A Schomberg and the Revd E Wells.

The outcome of the strengthened Hampshire and weakened Sussex teams was that Hampshire won the match 9½ – 6½, with 6½ points being scored on the top 7 boards, highlighting Hampshire top end strength.

The new players on the bottom boards for Sussex did not turn into regular players with VS Ward just making one more appearance and AT Osbourne two. JP Mollard was a great addition to the Hampshire team though. He had played for Surrey, Kent and Sussex against Hampshire in the past, but would play for Hampshire eight times until 1920, on boards 2 to 8, scoring 50%. I have him down as a Portsmouth Chess club player, but he also played for Southampton Chess club, as his name is referenced in the Hampshire League (Hants Chess Trophy) in a Southampton team.

County Chess Match: Hampshire V. Sussex.
In the Southern Counties Championship, played at Portsmouth, on Saturday, Hampshire defeated Sussex by 9½ points to 6½. The match was stubbornly contested all through, the first result being recorded after 2½ hours’ play.

Sussex felt the loss of five of their strongest players of last season; two were unable to assist the county in this match, and three left the county during the summer. A trial was given to two new players at the bottom boards, and both showed great promise at their first appearance.

Southern Weekly News – Saturday 05 November 1910

County Chess Match: Hampshire V. Sussex.
Sussex chess players had not at all a strong team against Hampshire. at Portsmouth on Saturday in the Southern Counties’ Chess Championship, and they were defeated by 9½ games to 6½.

The Hampshire men are led by a powerful quartet of players who seldom have to acknowledge defeat in county matches. Their fifth board was taken by Mr. J. P. Mollard, who has played for Kent. and for a season or two did duty in the Sussex team, but has now removed into Hampshire. His opponent lost through getting pressed for time at a critical juncture.

On the lower boards one or two of the Sussex players were men whose names are new, or comparatively new, to county chess..

West Sussex Gazette – Thursday 03 November 1910

Hampshire winners were JH Blake, Sir GA Thomas (Mr at this time, rather than Sir), FJH Elwell, Spencer Clarke, JP Mollard, E Clayton, R Targett and W Veitch.

Board	Hampshire	Club	Result	Sussex	Club	Result
1	JH Blake	Southampton	1	AA Bowley	Henfield	0
2	Sir GA Thomas	Portsmouth	1	W Paley Hughes	Hastings	0
3	FJH Elwell	Southampton	1	EG Reed	Brighton	0
4	Spencer Clarke	Andover	1	HE Dobell	Hastings	0
5	JP Mollard	Portsmouth	1	HJ Stephenson	Hastings	0
6	A Asher	Southampton	½	AJ Field	Brighton	½
7	E Clayton	Portsmouth	1	AE Infield	Brighton	0
8	WC Kenny	Southampton	0	Col Kensington	Hove	1
9	HD Osborn	Portsmouth	0	FE Purchas	Brighton	1
10	R Targett	Southampton	1	HT Grover	Brighton	0
11	E Draycott	Portsmouth	0	J Chandler	Lewes	1
12	FA Joyce	Newport (IOW)	0	F Brook	Brighton	1
13	HL Streeter	Bournemouth	½	EC Harvey	Brighton	½
14	W Veitch	Southampton	1	HC Hunt	Horsham	0
15	DHH Wassell	Petersfield	½	VS Ward	Littlehampton	½
16	H Tucker	IOW	0	AT Osborne	Lancing	1
	Total		9½	Total		6½

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Hampshire 4½ – Kent 11½ – Dec 12th 1910 – London

Hampshire were off to London next, to play Kent and they had a much weaker team than the Sussex match, with a number of players missing. Kent had a strong team and carried the day easily 11½ – 4½.

Hampshire’s three winning players were Sir GA Thomas, TE Haydon and WC Kenny.

Kent also beat Sussex (9½ – 6½) in the SE Division and met Devon in the semi-final of the Championship. They won this 12 – 4 which puts into perspective that Hampshire meeting them in London was always going to a tough ask. They would come up short again in the final, losing 6½ -8½ (1 adjourned) to Surrey.

Board	Hampshire	Club	Result	Kent	Result
1	JH Blake	Southampton	0	OC Muller	1
2	Sir GA Thomas	Portsmouth	1	JC Waterman	0
3	FJH Elwell	Southampton	½	EL Raymond	½
4	RF Barlow	Unattached	0	WB Dixon	1
5	TE Haydon	London	1	C Chapman	0
6	Spencer Clarke	Andover	0	C Hammond	1
7	JP Mollard	Portsmouth	0	HB Hodges	1
8	WR Neve	Unattached	0	A Clark	1
9	A Asher	Southampton	0	WM Brooke	1
10	WC Kenny	Southampton	1	AI Pritchard	0
11	HJ Penwill	Southampton	0	JA Detmold	1
12	HA Way	Portsmouth	0	BW Hamilton	1
13	Prof WF Mason	Hartley College	½	G Hanson	½
14	HL Streeter		0	JH Eastwood	1
15	WS Mackie		½	TL Hutchins	½
16	EA Way	Portsmouth	0	CE Taylor	1
	Total		4½	Total	11½

As mentioned the final of the Southern Counties Championship saw Kent lose to Surrey. The report in the BCM also detailed Surrey’s season results, which as can be seen they had two very close results against Middlesex and Essex. Board one for Surrey was Thomas Francis Lawrence, who has featured in one of Richard James’ excellent Minor Pieces articles which was split into two. On this occasion he lost to OC Muller, who had also beaten JH Blake in the Hampshire match.

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Hampshire 7 – Wiltshire 4 – July 29th 1911 – Salisbury

Hampshire’s final over the board match was their annual friendly against Wiltshire. The number of players in this match seem to have been dropping, with only an 11 board match this year. This was put down to holidays. Hampshire won comfortably 7 – 4 with JH Blake, FJH Elwell, A Asher (by default), WC Kenny, A Bennett and Prof WF Mason (I think Masson is the Wiltshire Telegraph is a typo) winning.

Board	Hampshire	Result	Wiltshire	Result
1	JH Blake	1	A Schomberg	0
2	FJH Elwell	1	F Sutton	0
3	A Asher	1	FE Young	0
4	J Streeter	½	Revd E Wells	½
5	WC Kenny	1	O Gummer	0
6	A Bennett	1	CJ Woodrow	0
7	E Clarke	0	A Watson	1
8	Dr Pollard	0	JC Clark	1
9	Prof WF Mason	1	FS Bradbeer	0
10	Rutherford	0	HO Buyer	1
11	H Sandell	½	AJ Phillips	½
	Total	7	Total	4

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Hampshire Player Performance

Hampshire played three matches, with only the four players playing in all of them. Frank Elwell scored two wins and a draw, whilst George Thomas won both of his. WC Kenny and Joseph Blake scored two wins and one loss each. It may well be that HL Streeter and J Streeter are the same player, but both newspapers have the name as stated, and for this reason I will leave as is.

Individual player performance is detailed below in a sortable table.

Hants Player	Win Percentage	Points Scored	Games Played
FJH Elwell	83.3%	2.5	3
Sir GA Thomas	100.0%	2	2
WC Kenny	66.7%	2	3
JH Blake	66.7%	2	3
Prof WF Mason	75.0%	1.5	2
A Asher	50.0%	1.5	3
W Veitch	100.0%	1	1
A Bennett	100.0%	1	1
E Clayton	100.0%	1	1
R Targett	100.0%	1	1
TE Haydon	100.0%	1	1
Spencer Clarke	50.0%	1	2
JP Mollard	50.0%	1	2
WS Mackie	50.0%	0.5	1
J Streeter	50.0%	0.5	1
DHH Wassell	50.0%	0.5	1
H Sandell	50.0%	0.5	1
HL Streeter	25.0%	0.5	2
EA Way	0.0%	0	1
Rutherford	0.0%	0	1
HJ Penwill	0.0%	0	1
WR Neve	0.0%	0	1
E Clarke	0.0%	0	1
HD Osborn	0.0%	0	1
E Draycott	0.0%	0	1
HA Way	0.0%	0	1
FA Joyce	0.0%	0	1
RF Barlow	0.0%	0	1
Dr Pollard	0.0%	0	1
H Tucker	0.0%	0	1

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Summary

It was good to see Hampshire win in the Southern Counties section and although Sussex were not as strong as previous years, this was a great win.

Hampshire played three Correspondence matches this year in the new SCCU Counties Championship. They beat Somerset 20½ – 13½ and lost to Northants 16½ – 23½ and Devon 13½ – 16½.

BCM included the results of the match against Somerset, where a number of the over the board county players participated. Lower down there were numerous other club players giving the opportunity to represent Hampshire. I noted HHR Northover who played in the Hampshire Championship in 1938, 1939, 1947 and 1948 and may have been a junior in 1910/11, as he also did not play for OTB Hampshire until 1925. He was a Southampton Chess Club player and won their championship in 1937 (no mean feat as Frank Ellwell won it 13 times between 1921 and 1937, and probably more before, as these are not reported).

In other activities in Hampshire Chess, the Hampshire Trophy attracted twelve teams, four from Southampton and Portsmouth, and one each from Andover, Hartley University College, Gosport and RMA (Royal Marines Association?) If you entered more than one team you were meant to split the stronger players into each team rather than play your best players in the one team. This seemed to be the case as although Southampton A won the NW Division, this was only half a point ahead of Southampton D. In the SE Division, Portsmouth D won 2 points ahead of Portsmouth A.

Portsmouth D beat Southampton A 3½ – 1½ in the final and the Portsmouth Evening News had the individual results.

The Hampshire AGM was held at the Bungalow Cafe in Southampton and although JH Blake was now living in London, he still chaired the meeting, as the President of the HCA. He reported that the season was a success with two of the OTB matches being won, and Hampshire reaching the semi-final of the new Correspondence Championship championship.

JH Blake was re-appointed president and the other officers were all re-elected with the exception that WC Kenny was appointed delegate to the SCCU, in the place of WR Neve who was not available this year.

Afterwards JH Blake took on 14 players in a simul and won 11, losing to WH Yorke, FJH Elwell and WS Mackie. I was surprised that FJH Elwell would be on the other side of a simul, being the board 3 for the County, but this shows the high esteem that JH Blake was held in.

• JH Blake – President
• HJ Penwill – Hon. Secretary and Treasurer
• JH Blake – Match Captain
• FJH Elwell, G Wood – Adjudicators
• WH Kenny, RF Barlow – 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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