Hampshire County Matches 1928 / 29

After winning the Montague Jones cup for the first time the previous season, Hampshire would have gone into this season in a confident mood. But the defeat to Berkshire by a single point meant they did not qualify from the league stage. It was actually their opponents, Berkshire who would win this competition this year. Like Hampshire the previous season this was their first success in this competition.

The loss to Berkshire’s was Hampshire’s only defeat from their four matches, although their 20 board friendly against Dorset was much closer than their previous matches against this County.

Picture above from the Hampshire Chess Archives – FL Taylor book.

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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 13½ – Bedfordshire 2½ – 3rd Nov 1928 – London

Hampshire’s first match in their group was against Bedfordshire, and as per the previous season this was a comfortable win. At this time it does seem that all Montague Jones Cup games were played in London, although Hampshire understandably played their friendly against Dorset in Bournemouth (which was then part of Hampshire), which was a central location for both counties.

Games from the county matches are pretty rare, but luckily the Hampshire Advertiser were starting to publish some. This included the board three game between RH Rushton and A Hayes, which was a 18 move win for the Portsmouth player. Rushton was a stronger player than this game shows, as he did play board 1 and 3 (twice) in his three games against Hampshire. He scored one win, one draw and this loss in these games.

Bedfordshire did well to hold Hampshire on the top two boards, but they could only manage another three draws, losing the other 11 games.

WJ Fry had started playing for Hampshire in 1920, but in the last couple of years had moved up the board order and was now regularly on boards 3 to 5, where he would remain for the rest of his Hampshire playing career (he died in 1954 at the age of 58). He was a 4 times Hampshire Individual Champion and 11 times Southampton Chess Club Champion.

Board	Hampshire	Colour	Result	Bedfordshire	Colour	Result
1	JH Blake	Black	½	SW Dickens	White	½
2	FJH Elwell	White	½	W Church	Black	½
3	Allan Hayes	Black	1	RH Rushton	White	0
4	WJ Fry	White	1	F Dickens	Black	0
5	HA Way	Black	1	LH Knight	White	0
6	Revd HF Hawkes	White	1	GL White	Black	0
7	AB Coe	Black	½	FW Thorburn	White	½
8	FA Joyce	White	1	AS Oliver	Black	0
9	Revd W Proctor	Black	1	F Baulk	White	0
10	Dr GF Trubridge	White	1	FT Needham	Black	0
11	JS West	Black	1	EH Phillips	White	0
12	E Clayton	White	½	GS Hales	Black	½
13	GAB Dewar	Black	1	AE Randell	White	0
14	LC Whetham	White	½	TW Bate	Black	½
15	FL Taylor	Black	1	R Hill	White	0
16	AFH Duffy Smith	White	1	LB Lewis	Black	0
	Total		13½	Total		2½

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Hampshire 7½ – Berkshire 8½ – 15th Dec 1928 – London

After the easy win against Bedfordshire, Hampshire met the much stronger Berkshire team. The match result in the Hampshire Archives had the full result after the adjournments, and initially this close match would indicate that JH Blake losing on board one was the key factor. However, in the Hampshire Advertiser is stated that Hampshire defaulted on boards 5 and 13 and this had far more to do with the loss.

The report in the paper correctly predicated that Elwell and Hayes would win their adjourned games, but Blake’s adjournment did not go as expected and this was adjudicated as a loss. All in all a disappointing result, especially as Berkshire would go on to win the Montague Jones Cup this season. The result for the adjourned games was published in the 12th January 1929 Hampshire Advertiser and the draw obviously came as a shock.

Board	Hampshire	Result	Berkshire	Result
1	JH Blake	0	GF Lawrence	1
2	FJH Elwell	1	FW Neale	0
3	Allan Hayes	1	LA Rumble	0
4	WJ Fry	½	H Lyford	½
5	HA Way (default)	0	FH Van Meuns	1
6	Revd HF Hawkes	1	EF Brown	0
7	FA Joyce	0	H Runham	1
8	AB Coe	½	B Hamilton	½
9	JS West	0	GH Kingham	1
10	GA Perry	1	ST Peirson	0
11	FJ Tinkler	1	SG Chamberlain	0
12	E Clayton	0	AF Upton	1
13	LC Whetham (default)	0	AE Brooks	1
14	FL Taylor	½	W Bell	½
15	GL Eves	1	HH Weider	0
16	Revd E Wells	0	E Wickes	1
	Total	7½	Total	8½

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Hampshire 10½ – Hertfordshire 5½ – 23rd Feb 1928 – London

Hampshire next met Hertfordshire and this was a comfortable 10½ – 5½ win. The AB Coe game on board 6 was published in the Hampshire Advertiser and I give this below. This was a well played game by Coe, and for interest I imported this into Lichess which gave Coe’s accuracy at 92% with just 4 inaccuracies. Only an indication of the quality of the game, but like the Hayes game given previously, these games on the higher boards were to a good standard.

Hampshire winners were JH Blake, HD Lloyd, AB Coe, CT Bennett, Revd HF Hawkes, FA Joyce, Dr GF Trubridge and GL Eves.

Board	Hampshire	Colour	Result	Hertfordshire	Colour	Result
1	JH Blake	White	1	GSA Wheatcroft	Black	0
2	FJH Elwell	Black	0	EG Twitchett	White	1
3	HA Way	White	½	GPA Richards	Black	½
4	WJ Fry	Black	½	FN Braund	White	½
5	HD Lloyd	White	1	Major Montague Jones	Black	0
6	AB Coe	Black	1	LS Penrose	White	0
7	CT Bennett	White	1	GE Marler	Black	0
8	Revd HF Hawkes	Black	1	EG Attenborough	White	0
9	FA Joyce	White	1	W Hatton-Ward	Black	0
10	Revd W Proctor	Black	½	BK Trotter	White	½
11	GA Perry	White	0	AK Knight	Black	1
12	Dr GF Trubridge	Black	1	AE Cozens	White	0
13	AS Dance	White	½	F Hakanson	Black	½
14	FJ Tinkler	Black	0	LS Bush	White	1
15	FL Taylor	White	½	R Rockett	Black	½
16	GL Eves	Black	1	AF Goetyee	White	0
	Total		10½	Total		5½

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Hampshire 11 – Dorset 9 – 16th March 1929 – Bournemouth

Hampshire had several easy wins against Dorset since their first match in 1924, but this was not the case in this 20 board match, with Hampshire just winning by two points. The Hampshire team were not as strong as the ones for the Montague Jones Cup, but Hampshire would probably bring a stronger team the next time they met.

The report in the Western Gazzette highlighted the growth in Dorset Chess, with them re-entering the Montague Jones Cup the following season and the introduction of a Individual Championship. This tournament was held and won by DH Nappier. This was a year before Hampshire had an Individual Championship. Dorset improved organisation was bringing positive changes to their county.

Hampshire winners were WJ Fry, FJ Tinkler, JW Webster, SL Russell, FL Taylor, HH Bates and R Hilton. It was pleasing to see both counties with lady players in their teams.

Board	Hampshire	Result	Dorset	Result
1	FJH Elwell	½	EL Raymond	½
2	WJ Fry	1	CF Chapman	0
3	Revd HF Hawkes	½	WH Curtis	½
4	AB Coe	½	DH Napper	½
5	Dr GF Trubridge	½	FB Gibson	½
6	HC Ferand	0	AF Thomas	1
7	HJ Whitmarsh	½	Capt PH di Marco	½
8	FJ Tinkler	1	P Ward	0
9	JW Webster	1	Dr BE Sendermore	0
10	WJ Limes	0	WT Wilkinson	1
11	SL Russell	1	H Griffin	0
12	EG Parsons	½	WL Long	½
13	FL Taylor	1	CW Bullows	0
14	Revd E Wells	0	HG Barnes	1
15	HH Bates	1	Mrs CW Bullows	0
16	LC Houston	½	G Barby	½
17	Brig-Gen GF Muspratt	0	DJ Fowler	1
18	R Hilton	1	HP Hawkins	0
19	Miss ML Harrison	½	HJ Fowler	½
20	AC White	0	FW Mitchener	1
	Total	11	Total	9

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Summary

A summary of the county matches and the general chess activities in Hampshire.

With the probably unnecessary lost to Berkshire this was a missed opportunity to progress to the KO stages of the Montague Jones Cup, but apart from this an excellent season for Hampshire. Hampshire were benefiting from not playing the SCCU powerhouses though.

The 1928 British Chess Championship was held in Tenby. Two players associated with Hampshire played in the main championship, with William Winter achieving third place and Sir George Alan Thomas fourth.

Although their residences are not recorded as Hampshire, as they were included in the HCA Archives as Hampshire successes, I feel it is correct to have these recorded as such.

Hampshire played two County Correspondence Matches and the individual results from the 80 board match against Kent was recorded in the Hampshire Chess Archives. They had a positive result in the County Championship (although I don’t know what position they finished in). The results from the Hampshire Archive for the match are at the bottom of the page.

The two Hampshire club leagues were changed this season, both being replaced with a Hampshire League with two divisions (it was originally planned to be three). Division One was won by Old Portsmouth, whilst Portsmouth won Division Two. The tables are below, although there were still some matches to be played, but these would not affect the top placing. An excellent season for Portsmouth.

The 40th HCA AGM was reported in the Hampshire Advertiser. This highlighted that Bournemouth’s Miss L Harrison was elected as the first female vice president, that all County matches, County league and club competitions should use chess clocks and money had been put aside to help with this. The rules for the new HCA Individual Championship were passed (this commenced in 1930).

The 80 board Correspondence match against Kent, and the good performance in the Counties Correspondence championship was also highlighted.

Finally an award to the Hon Secretary Mr AB Coe was presented by the President of the Bournemouth Chess Club the Revd E Wells who wished Mr Coe would serve for many years. Mr Coe did fulfil this role until 1933/34 but as per the Southampton Chess Club Centenary Booklet – 1983 he did cause some issues, and was not popular at his own club, or with other clubs, and was replaced¹ in 1934 by FL Taylor.

Southampton Chess Club Centenary Booklet – 1983

Mr AB Coe,1912-1935, almost as strong a player as WJ Fry, won the Cup in 1913 and the Championship in 1922; was match Secretary 1913-15 and on the committee 1919-1929. He was Secretary and Treasurer of the Hampshire Chess Association 1923-34 where his best work was done. Unfortunately he made himself very unpopular in his later years especially in the club and with players of other clubs in Southampton.

As a consequence Mr FL Taylor, a younger member of the Southampton club and Secretary Of Old Tauntonians was elected Secretary at the Hampshire Chess Association Annual General Meeting in 1934

HL Parsons – 1983

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The HCA officers elected at the AGM were:

• JH Blake – President
• AB Coe – Hon. Secretary and Treasurer
• JH Blake – Match Captain
• FJH Elwell, BM Hobby – Hon. Auditors
• JH Blake, HA Way & AB Coe – SCCU Delegates

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Hants vs Kent Correspondence Match

The 80 board Correspondence match between Hampshire and Kent. Some players seemed to have played more than one game, but still a very impressive amount of players involved.

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Acknowledgements and Sources

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1. This to my mind shows the importance of documents such as the Southampton Chess Club booklet, as these snippets help understand what happened behind the scenes. ↩︎