Hampshire County Matches 1919 / 20 - Hampshire Chess History

After a six year break due to the First World War Hampshire only had one over the board match in the 1919 / 1920 season, which was against Surrey in the KO stage of the SCCU Championship. The annual Wiltshire match which had been held most years since 1893 was the obvious missing fixture going forward.

Hampshire v Surrey 8 May 1920
Summary
Acknowledgements and Sources

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 7 – Surrey 9 – May 8th 1920 – London

The SCCU Championship in the first season following World War One was different than the seasons prior to the war. Hampshire were put into the Southern section on their own, whilst Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Essex, Middlesex and Herts were in the Metropolitan section. Hampshire at least managed the one match, although as this was against the winner of the large Metropolitan section, this was always going to be a tough ask.

Details on 1919 1920 County Season - BCM — **Details on 1919 1920 County Season – BCM**

Surrey won the Metropolitan section, and they met Hampshire at the Gambit, Budge Road in London on the 8th May 1920, and Surrey came out on top by two points.

With six years since the last match the Hampshire team had not changed significantly. The main change was that a young 22 year old William Winter was now on board two, ahead of Frank Elwell, although Joseph Blake was still was on board one. Winter was the second player who had played for Hampshire who would be British Champion, joining Sir George Thomas. Winter won his championships in 1935 (ahead of Thomas) and 1936. Sir George Thomas won his in 1923 and 1934. Joseph Blake came close many times and lost in a playoff against Henry Atkins in 1909. Safe to say, he probably would have won the title if Atkins did not play and dominate in this period.

The other Hampshire players who would manage to win the British Championship were Conel Hugh O’Donel Alexander who won in 1938 and 1956, although he would not play for Hampshire until 1932. Paul Littlewood was champion in 1982 and represented Hampshire in the late 1970’s. The list is rounded off with Harry Grieve who played for Hampshire in the Chiltern League and was champion in 2022. We should not forget that Gillian Moore was joint Women’s champion in 1966 (Gillian has also won the junior and senior titles). As always, many thanks to Britbase for the list of British Chess Champions (amongst many other British Chess historic information).

Among the other Hampshire players L Illingworth was the only other new player to the team. Hampshire were missing George Thomas and he would only play one county game in the next ten years. This ended Hampshire’s County Chess season, but there would be more matches played in the next couple of seasons.

The Hampshire winners in the match were JH Blake, W Winter, JS Flower and C Parsons.

Board	Hampshire	Result	Surrey	Result
1	JH Blake	1	RCJ Walker	0
2	W Winter	1	LP Rees	0
3	FJH Elwell	½	HB Uber	½
4	RF Barlow	½	GA Felce	½
5	JP Mollard	0	AJ Maas	1
6	WS Mackie	0	E McDonald	1
7	JS West	½	WE Allnutt	½
8	HD Osborn	½	HC Griffiths	½
9	L Illingworth	½	PJ Allingham	½
10	JS Flower	1	FFL Alexander	0
11	FA Joyce	0	J Butland	1
12	FG Binning	0	AB Waugh	1
13	E Clayton	0	Dr F St John Steadman	1
14	AB Coe	½	GE Smith	½
15	PEJ Talbot	0	G Wernick	1
16	C Parsons	1	Revd WAC Craig	0
	Total	7	Total	9

Summary – Update on activities since 1914

Without going into too much detail, it is worth looking at what had been happening chess wise in Hampshire since the 1913/14 season. A good place to start is the 1919 Hampshire Chess AGM report, this provided information on what Chess activities had been undertaking during the latter half of the war.

Chess
The annual meeting of the Hampshire County Chess Association will be held today at the Grammar School, West Marlands. Southampton, the present headquarters’ of the Southampton Club.
Following is the Honorary Secretary’s report, which will presented the meeting.

HAMPSHIRE CHESS ASSOCIATION REPORT. 1917 18 AND 1918 19

No report was issued last year, and chess in Hampshire was probably at its lowest ebb. but the end of the war and the return of players from over the seas has paved the way for a great chess offensive, and seldom have the prospects of a real revival of the game been brighter.

During the past two seasons chess within the County Association was limited to matches by correspondence and those the Trophy competition, no effort being made to play any over-the-board matches with other counties.

Following are particulars of the matches played by correspondence: — May to November 1917 the friendly with Norfolk was won 12 to 8. April 1918 to September 1918. against Devon, won 18 to 12. October 1918 to March 1919 against Middlesex, lost by 13 to 17. The match with Devon was the semi final of the 8th competition for the Southern Counties’ Championship, and the one with Middlesex the final. This also counted for the 1st round the 9th competition.

For the coming season Hampshire paired with Surrey, the lists having been exchanged on Friday.

In the County Trophy competition only four clubs entered, all the others preferring to rest until more favourable travelling facilities were available. The Portsmouth and Southampton Clubs again provided three teams, and these with the University College and Winchester, were divided into two sections. In 1917 18 Winchester, the winner of the N.W. division, beat Southampton A. the winner the S.E. division in the final. In 1918-19 the University College, the winners of the S.E. division, beat Southampton B the winners the N.W. division.

The over the-board Championship competition which has been suspended since 1914, will start again, and this season regrouping the counties participating has been made to save the expense of long and tedious railway journeys. The result that Hampshire has a bye the first round, and will meet late in the season the winner the group constating of Middlesex. Essex, Kent, Surrey, Herts, and Sussex in the semi final of the Eastern section. The two groups in the Western section are formed by Gloucester. Wilts, and Somerset one. and Devon and Cornwall in the other.

Hampshire Advertiser – Saturday 18 October 1919

As can be seen from this report, Correspondence Chess proved popular during the war years. In total Hampshire played 14 matches in this period winning 9 and losing 5 matches

This included Hampshire winning the 6th (or 5th?) SCCU Championship in 1917, where they defeated Surrey 19-11. A number of the top OTB players for both counties played in the match. Although with 30 boards there were a number of normal club players who played. Looking at the players in the teams I noticed that three members of the Felce family played. GA Felce had played against Hampshire from 1900 to 1938. HG Felce from 1920 to 1969 (when he was still rated 187). PE Felce never played OTB against Hampshire. Additional details were included on the ECF Forum although they do not mention PE Felce.

Hants Surrey Correspondence 1917 - BCM — **Hants Surrey Correspondence 1917 – BCM**

The 1919 Hampshire AGM report from the BCM mentioned Hampshire’s win, as well as details on the County Trophy competition, which understandably saw a drop off in numbers from the pre war position. This report mentions Hampshire won the 5th Correspondence Championship and the result states the 6th. It maybe that Hampshire won both, but as these are from the same BCM it is likely just a misprint, and the won just the one?

Hampshire 1917 AGM - BCM — **Hampshire 1917 AGM – BCM**

Returning to the current 1919/20 season Hampshire, lost their one Correspondence match, which was also against Surrey.

Hampshire Correspondence 1919 1920

The Hampsh ire Trop hy in the 1919/20 season attracted nine teams. The NW. Division was won by Winchester after a tie with Andover. The SE. Division was won by Portsmouth C. The final, played in Botley, resulted in Winchester winning with a score of 5 to 1 (match result below). In the Hampshire League four teams competed, the result being that Eastleigh and Southampton I both won two matches, and University College and Southampton II won 1 each. The tie between Eastleigh and Southampton I for first place was decided by the games won. This went Eastleigh’s way with a 9 – 6 record, whilst Southampton I’s was 7 – 8.

The report prior to the 1920 AGM is below, and following this is the actual AGM report, both from the Hampshire Advertiser. As can be seen chess was returning to normal after the war and their was a lot of hope for the future.