Hampshire County Matches 1936 / 37 - Hampshire Chess History

Hampshire played 4 OTB and 4 Correspondence matches this season. As per the previous season they managed to reach the final of the Montague Jones Cup, but Cambridgeshire again proved too strong, despite Hampshire fielding Sir George Thomas and CHOD Alexander.

Hampshire v Dorset 31 Oct 1936
Hampshire v Gloucestershire 5 Dec 1936
Hampshire v Devon 6 Feb 1937
Hampshire v Cambridgeshire 13 Mar 1937
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 14 – Dorset 6 – 31st Oct 1936 – Bournemouth

Hampshire met Dorset in the 1st round of the Montague Jones Cup, and ended up comfortable winners by 8 points. The teams Hampshire fielded in the Montague Jones Cup were much stronger than the ones in the friendly matches, as can be seen from their results against Dorset, against who they played several friendlies in this period.

The team makeup was changing now, with CHOD Alexander, WH Pratten, WA Hooper, FB Allen and SL Russell on the top boards. These players only started to play for Hampshire since the 1930’s¹. Hampshire’s only losers in the 20 board match were on the low boards (17, 19 & 20), with JW Webster, A Gale and Hampshire’s president J Spedan Lewis dropping the full point.

A photo was included in the Bournemouth Times and Directory, although not that clear, it does capture how the matches looked.

Bournemouth Times and Directory - Friday 06 November 1936 — **Bournemouth Times and Directory – Friday 06 November 1936**

Board	Hampshire	Result	Dorset	Result
1	CHOD Alexander	½	BW Wood	½
2	FJH Elwell	½	H Streeter	½
3	WH Pratten	1	AF Thomas	0
4	WJ Fry	1	DH Napper	0
5	WA Hooper	1	GH Smith	0
6	HA Way	½	EL Raymond	½
7	FB Allen	1	WH Curtis	0
8	HD Lloyd	½	HG Barnes	½
9	SL Russell	1	DB Kitchin	0
10	CT Bennett	1	HC Hickenbotham	0
11	WA Way	1	Dr C Li Lander	0
12	W Cole	1	Revd AV Deane	0
13	A James	1	FWC Mitchener	0
14	AS Dance	½	Capt PH di Marco	½
15	FL Taylor	1	T Waterhouse	0
16	EW Haughton	½	HJ Collins	½
17	JW Webster	0	HF Hawkins	1
18	RS Lockwood	1	WT Wilkinson	0
19	A Gale	0	Miss ME Lander	1
20	J Spedan Lewis	0	SJ Leigh	1
Total		14		6

Hampshire 10½ – Gloucestershire 7½ – 5th December 1936 – Warminster

In the 2nd round the match against Gloucestershire was much closer, but Hampshire managed to come out on top by 3 points. Hampshire were missing their normal second board Francis Elwell, but this did not stop them winning the top 3 boards. The high scoring continued at the top, as Hampshire just dropped two draws on the top seven boards. The report in the Hampshire Advertiser mentioned the strong junior players LE Vine, RG Duce, A Gale and LG O’Neill.

These new players had different county careers. This was the first match for LE Vine, who would go on to play around 100 times for the County up to 1972, as well as winning the Hampshire Individual championship in 1952 (and maybe 1953). Vine had previously played for Somerset against Hampshire 4 times from 1924 to 1934.

The other new players were RG Duce who played until the start of the 2nd world war, A Gale who represented Hampshire in four matches and LG O’Neill, who only played for Hampshire in this one match.

There was also a report in the Western Daily Press, with a more Gloucestershire viewpoint i.e. missing two strong players.

Hants vs Glos Hampshire Advertiser - Saturday 12 December 1936 — **Hants vs Glos Hampshire Advertiser – Saturday 12 December 1936**

Hants vs Glos Western Daily Press - 07 December 1936 — **Hants vs Glos Western Daily Press – 07 December 1936**

Hampshire winners were CHOD Alexander, WJ Fry. HA Way, FB Allen, SL Russell, LE Vine, A Dod and RG Duce.

Board	Hampshire	Result	Gloucestershire	Result
1	CHOD Alexander	1	C Sullivan	0
2	WJ Fry	1	HM Cuttle	0
3	HA Way	1	HJ Chapman	0
4	AB Coe	½	HD Wells	½
5	FB Allen	1	GW Powell	0
6	HD Lloyd	½	CB Pepler	½
7	SL Russell	1	FF Finch	0
8	A James	0	AC Steadman	1
9	Sq-Ldr L Vine	1	HH Johnson	0
10	AS Dance	0	FS Wittingham	1
11	FL Taylor	0	JE Jones	1
12	A Dod	1	WR Horsham	0
13	JW Webster	½	W Redhall	½
14	RS Lockwood	½	TH Wallis	½
15	HHR Northover	0	ASL Smith	1
16	RG Duce	1	GH Dudden	0
17	A Gale	0	C Welch	1
18	LG O’Neill	½	AE Horne	½
Total		10½		7½

Hampshire 9 – Devon 7 – 6th February 1937 – Yeovil

In the semi-final Hampshire were paired with Devon, and had to travel even further west than their match against Gloucestershire, this time all the way to Yeovil. Hampshire again had a strong team, although were missing Elwell, Pratten, Lloyd, Allen and Chapman, and as expected Devon gave them a tough match.

I like to look at the report from both sides, and the Western Morning News as usual had an in-depth report, which covered details of several games. The Hampshire Advertiser detailed Hampshire’s missing players, but also included the win by Dod against an ex-Hampshire player, the Revd HF Hawkes (he played 20 games from 1927 to 1933 for Hampshire, scoring an impressive 67.5%). I give the game below the newspaper articles.

Anthony Dod of Winchester was certainly a valuable addition to Hampshire’s county team this season, winning all three of his games. In total he played 10 times for Hampshire, scoring 70%. His last game was in February 1939. I presume he was the same Anthony Dod who won the First Class all play all at the Craigside Tournament in 1900 – 1901.

It also seems the Hampshire motto is “Careless of laurels, yet striving” which I was certainly unaware of!

Hants vs Devon Western Morning News - 10 Feb 1937 — **Hants vs Devon Western Morning News – 10 Feb 1937**

Hants vs Devon Hampshire Advertiser - 13 Feb 1937 — **Hants vs Devon Hampshire Advertiser – 13 Feb 1937**

At the end of play Hampshire had won the match 8½ – 4½, but the 3 adjudicated games were two wins for Devon and one draw. The game from the Hampshire Advertiser is below, with a pretty finish.

Board	Hampshire	Colour	Result	Devon	Colour	Result
1	CHOD Alexander	White	1	JB Goodman	Black	0
2	WJ Fry	Black	0	HV Mallison	White	1
3	HA Way	White	½	RM Bruce	Black	½
4	AB Coe	Black	½	F Pitt-Fox	White	½
5	Sq-Ldr L Vine	White	1	GF Anderson	Black	0
6	A Dod	Black	1	Revd HF Hawkes	White	0
7	WA Way	White	½	RW Hornbrook	Black	½
8	SL Russell	Black	1	SB Slack	White	0
9	AS Dance	White	0	AB Treloar	Black	1
10	FL Taylor	Black	1	D Egginton	White	0
11	RG Duce	White	1	RA Slade	Black	0
12	HL Parsons	Black	0	L Barford	White	1
13	HS Overmass	White	0	GD Crowther	Black	1
14	RS Lockwood	Black	½	FJ Powell	White	½
15	JW Webster	White	0	FH Light	Black	1
16	J Spedan Lewis	Black	1	WG Coast	White	0
Total			9			7

Hampshire 5½ – Cambridgeshire 10½ – 13th March 1937 – London

Hampshire met Cambridgeshire in the final, which was a repeat of the previous year. Cambridgeshire proved too strong again, despite Hampshire fielding a strong team, although this was heavily weighted towards the top boards, with both Sir George Thomas and CHOD Alexander playing.

This was a heavy defeat and only scoring the one point on boards 10 to 16 was key to the loss, but Hampshire would eventually prevail against Cambridgeshire fielding a team not much different to this one.

Board	Hampshire	Result	Cambridgeshire	Result
1	Sir GA Thomas	½	PS Milner Barry	½
2	CHOD Alexander	1	L Illingworth	0
3	WH Pratten	1	FEA Kitto	0
4	WJ Fry	½	JT Sifton	½
5	WA Hooper	0	Dr BH Neumann	1
6	HA Way	0	DB Schultz	1
7	AB Coe	½	FJ O’Donavan	½
8	Sq-Ldr L Vine	0	AR Robins	1
9	A Dod	1	F Higginbottom	0
10	SL Russell	0	LF Gord	1
11	WA Way	0	RG Stansfield	1
12	AJ Morrell	½	FR Tyson	½
13	Dr GF Trubridge	0	Prof R Williams	1
14	AS Dance	½	EW Brocklesby	½
15	RG Duce	0	HW Scarlett	1
16	J Spedan Lewis	0	AA Maris	1
Total		5½		10½

Summary

Hampshire fell short again, losing to Cambridgeshire in the Montague Jones competition, but the teams they were fielding were probably as strong as they had ever fielded.

Hampshire played three County Correspondence matches, finishing 8th scoring 16½ points from 30 games in the County Championship (won by Middlesex). In the other two matches they beat Cornwall 19½ – 13½ and lost to Lincolnshire 9½ – 20½. Looking at the players in these last two matches, the players in the Cornwall match were much stronger than the ones in the Lincolnshire match. Board details for the majority of the games in all three matches are in the FA Taylor document.

In the Hampshire league Portsmouth won Division One and Winchester Gambit won Division Two (winning all their matches). CHOD Alexander did play in some of the Winchester matches, which shows his commitment to local chess whilst he was based in Hampshire.

The 1936 British Chess Championship was won by ex Hampshire player William Winter, with Sir George Thomas 8th. It was held in Bournemouth, although this was only the main championship with the other events held alongside the Nottingham International Tournament. CHOD Alexander and Sir George Thomas did play in this and finished in 13th and 14th place respectively.

British Chess Championship 1936 - Source Britbase — **British Chess Championship 1936 – Source Britbase**

Francis Elwell retained the HCA Individual Championship by half a point from WJ Fry.

The 48th HCA AGM was reported in the Hampshire Advertiser and there were 29 members in attendance, from 13 clubs. It is a shame the HCA Archives does not have the minutes² of the meeting, as with Mr Taylor as the secretary it would seem these would have been quite lengthy. Mr Spedan Lewis seems to have brought new vigour to the HCA, and school chess was certainly on the uptake.

The BCF had also accepted the HCA invitation for the British Chess Championship to be held in either Bournemouth or Southampton in 1939, although details on this in Britbase shows a Premier Congress was held instead, with the main championship planned to be held later in the year in London. For obvious reasons this did not happen.

The Ladies championship was held in Bournemouth though, as well as numerous other all play all tournaments and as always, the Britbase articles are well worth a read.