Hampshire County Matches 1912 / 13

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, winning two and losing one.

---

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.

---

Hampshire 10 Sussex 6 – Oct 26th 1912 – Portsmouth

There were changes in the SCCU Championship this season, with old rivals Surrey being moved into the SE Division and Kent being switched out. This was detailed in the Norwood News when reporting on the 13th Surrey AGM. Although Hampshire had struggled against Kent, Surrey were probably a stronger team. The one advantage was that the Surrey match would not always be held in London, where the Kent match was always played.

SCCU Changes – The sections for the Southern Counties Union Championship were altered this year. and Surrey had to play Sussex and Hampshire, both away. Surrey drew against Sussex and won against Hampshire, thereby winning their section.

They then had to play Gloucestershire, also away in the semi-final. This match took place at Swindon on April 12th, when Surrey were again winners. The final match was against Middlesex. This was played at City of London Chess Club on May 24th. was contested by two very powerful teams. and after a very hard struggle resulted in a win for Middlesex.

Norwood News – Saturday 11 October 1913

Hampshire’s first match of the season was against Sussex and they started with a 10 – 6 win. Although the report was from the West Sussex County Times I don’t think what they reported, as to this was a disadvantage for Sussex was incorrect. A number of the top Sussex players were members of the Hastings Chess Club and it was a very long journey, starting early in the morning and not returning until after midnight. For this reason this was not an attractive option for them and they did not play in the match.

That said, the vast majority of the players were from the Brighton Chess Club, and their top board was the Sussex Champion (although according to EDO was a lot weaker than Blake).

The report in the paper included details on some of the top games, it would be good to see the games, but at least having some information on the games is a welcome addition.

Hampshire winners were JH Blake, GA Thomas, E Draycott, HD Osborn, FA Joyce, E Clayton, HW Daws, HA Way and WS Mackie. I would presume that F Martin on board six was a replacement. This was his last game for Hampshire, only playing 14 times since his debut in 1892, but from previous reports he was used as a replacement several times, and his only wins and draws were against the weaker Wiltshire teams. But having players who can step in at the last moment, or travel as a substitute player is very valuable for teams.

Board	Hampshire	Club	Result	Sussex	Club	Result
1	JH Blake	Southampton	1	RE Lean	Brighton	0
2	Sir GA Thomas	Portsmouth	1	J Raoux	Brighton	0
3	FJH Elwell	Southampton	½	EG Reed	Brighton	½
4	JP Mollard	Portsmouth	0	AJ Field	Brighton	1
5	E Draycott	Portsmouth	1	HW Butler	Brighton	0
6	F Martin	Portsmouth	0	JW Bridger	Lodsworth	1
7	HD Osborn	Gosport	1	Castle Leaver	Brighton	0
8	W Whellem		0	CJA Wade	Brighton	1
9	FA Joyce	Newport (IOW)	1	J Chandler	Lewes	0
10	E Clayton	Portsmouth	1	HC Hunt	Horsham	0
11	HW Daws	IOW	1	FE Purchas	Brighton	0
12	W Veitch	Southampton	½	S Pilch	Brighton	½
13	HA Way	Portsmouth	1	EC Harvey	Hove	0
14	Prof WF Masom	Southampton	0	HT Grover	Brighton	1
15	WS Mackie	Southampton	1	FW Justice-Ford	Brighton	0
16	HJ Penwill	Southampton	0	Mrs Sidney	Brighton	1
	Total		10	Total		6

---

Hampshire 6½ – Surrey 9½ – Jan 11th 1913 – Southampton

Hampshire had not played Surrey since February 1906 when they lost 3½ – 12½, and that season Surrey went on to win the SCCU Championship. Therefore the fact that Hampshire scored 6½ points was probably a good result. Although as the match was played in Southampton, this showed that Surrey were a much stronger team than Hampshire.

Hampshire were missing George Thomas and Frank Elwell (illness) which would not have helped their chances in this match, although they did score 3½ points from the top 4 boards. The match report from the Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser was very interesting and commented on the strength in depth of the Surrey team. I found the fact that the board 2 match was agreed drawn due to Dr Hart having to leave early amusing.

Hampshire’s winning players were JH Blake, E Draycott, PA MacMahon, JP Mollard and WS Mackie.

Board	Hampshire	Club	Result	Surrey	Result
1	JH Blake	Southampton	1	FL Anspach	0
2	Dr Hart		½	LP Rees	½
3	E Draycott	Portsmouth	1	AE Tietjen	0
4	PA MacMahon	Southampton	1	GA Felce	0
5	FN Braund	IOW	0	E MacDonald	1
6	HD Osborn	Gosport	0	AJ Mass	1
7	WH Killick	Southampton	0	PJ Allingham	1
8	JP Mollard	Portsmouth	1	A Howell	0
9	FA Joyce	Newport (IOW)	0	HC Griffiths	1
10	H Tarbert		0	WT Dickinson	1
11	WC Kenny	Southampton	0	F Dark	1
12	E Clayton	Portsmouth	½	J Butland	½
13	W Veitch	Southampton	0	WD Childs	1
14	Prof WF Masom	Southampton	0	Dr F St John Steadman	1
15	WS Mackie	Southampton	1	TH Moore	0
16	HA Way	Portsmouth	½	AJ Spencer	½
	Total		6½	Total	9½

---

Hampshire 11 – Wiltshire 1 – July 1913 – Salisbury

Hampshire’s final over the board match was their annual friendly against Wiltshire. Unfortunately I could not find the individual pairings, but Hampshire had a huge 11 – 1 win, and the only details were that Wiltshire had a weak team.

I think, although not 100% sure that this was the last match against Salisbury until 1934, when they met them in the Stevenson competition. With the commencement of the first world war in 1914 this friendly match was halted and did not really commence again apart from one off matches in the 1930’s and 1950’s.

---

Hampshire Player Performance

With no information on the Wiltshire match, the performance is on just the two matches. JH Blake and WS Mackie were the only players who won both their matches.

Individual player performance is detailed below in a sortable table.

Hants Player	Win Percentage	Points Scored	Games Played
WS Mackie	100.0%	2	2
Prof WF Masom	100.0%	2	2
JH Blake	100.0%	2	2
W Jenkins	100.0%	1	1
AC Whitcher	100.0%	1	1
F Martin	100.0%	1	1
Sir GA Thomas	100.0%	1	1
WC Kenny	100.0%	1	1
Prof EL Watkins	100.0%	1	1
Dr Hart	100.0%	1	1
W Veitch	100.0%	1	1
WF Sandell	100.0%	1	1
PA MacMahon	100.0%	1	1
JP Mollard	100.0%	1	1
FJH Elwell	50.0%	1	2
HJ Penwill	50.0%	1	2
E Clarke	50.0%	0.5	1
H Taggett	50.0%	0.5	1
Dr Gillett	50.0%	0.5	1
J Bradfield	50.0%	0.5	1
SD Caws	50.0%	0.5	1
F Bunning	50.0%	0.5	1
JS Flower	50.0%	0.5	1
A Asher	25.0%	0.5	2
E Clayton	0.0%	0	1
DHH Wassell	0.0%	0	1
HD Osborn	0.0%	0	1
Absent	0.0%	0	1
J Slatter	0.0%	0	1
Substitute	0.0%	0	1
E Draycott	0.0%	0	1
LC Whetham	0.0%	0	1
Revd HW Yorke	0.0%	0	1
PEJ Talbot	0.0%	0	1
WH Killick	0.0%	0	2
HA Way	0.0%	0	2

---

Summary

A good season for Hampshire in their over the board matches with the two wins, and only losing to the strong Surrey side.

In other activities Hampshire played three Correspondence matches in the County Championship, beating Gloucestershire and Shropshire whilst losing to Kent.

With regards to the Correspondence matches, this seemed a popular activity among clubs, as reported in the Andover Chess Club AGM where they played against Halifax, as well as their players representing Hampshire in the above matches. Of note was Spencer Clarke was still playing for Andover, as he first played for Hampshire in 1896, and stopped in 1910. He was normally on the Hampshire top boards, and obviously was still a strong player beating one of the best players in Yorkshire.

There was a change in the Hampshire Trophy, with a separate lower competition created, named the Hampshire League. From the details in the Andover Chess Club AGM, stronger club players were excluded from the teams in this competition. It was good to see the Hampshire Trophy / League growing with this 2nd tier competition. The Hampshire Trophy would change to be called the Hampshire League in 1928 with separate divisions, and would remain with this name until its demise in the 1980’s.

The Hampshire Trophy attracted fourteen teams, which were split into two sections of seven teams. Eight of the teams were again from either Southampton or Portsmouth, with the others being from Andover, Hartley, Basingstoke, Gosport, Petersfield and RMA (Royal Marines Association?).

Despite Southampton having four teams in the NW division, as they had to split their strength this saw Hartley College won the division with 5½ points from their 6 games. Portsmouth D won the SE division with 5 points.

In the final the match was tied 2½ points each, and a replay was held. Hartley College won this by the narrowest of margins, and were champions for the first time. The first match result was included in the Hampshire Telegraph.

The clubs which entered the Hampshire League were Andover, Eastleigh, Hartley College, Romsey, Southampton (2 teams) and Old Tauntonians, which indicated it was more for the clubs in the NW area, as there were no clubs from the Portsmouth area in the competition. This was a strict league with no final, and Andover finished in 1st place, ahead of Eastleigh.

I could not find a report on the Hampshire AGM this year, but as far as I can tell the officers remained the same.

• 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

---

Acknowledgements and Sources

---