As reported in the Portsmouth Evening News, the Hampshire Individual Championship was in a different format this year with a Swiss style competition, the 12 players played 7 rounds from January to June.
Change to HCA Championship
This tournament was run on a totally new basis this year and 12 players entered. Previously (post war?) only the winners and runner-up of the local league Individual Competitions were eligible, which meant that strong players had to take part in what was to them, a rather tedious preliminary tournament. Now that there is an open entry it is to be expected that there will be more taking part next season.
Portsmouth Evening News June 1957
Update July 2024: I have managed to locate additional information. Originally I thought this was a six round tournament, but in fact there were seven rounds. Although I could not locate the results from the sixth round, as I now have the seventh round the final scores these have been calculated.
I have also added various updates from the Portsmouth Evening News “Chess Notes” articles.
It was fortunate that over 500 of Wilf Pratten’s games were recorded and supplied to Britbase by Roger Paige and Arthur Brameld. Three of the games from the 1957 Championship were in this database and I have included in the article.
As reported in the Hampshire AGM minutes the tournament controller was AC Garner, with the time control at 30 moves in 90 minutes. CH Henshaw thought this was unsatisfactory, but the committee agreed that the control would not change.
For a list of the winners of the Hampshire Individual Championship and links to any articles I have written the table on the Hampshire Individual Championship is the best place to look. In addition, the table on the Hampshire Tournaments will detail these and any other tournament articles I have completed. Both of these are available from the menu at the top of the site as well.
Round 1
Entrants were detailed in the Portsmouth Evening News. There were four players from Fareham and Southampton Chess clubs and one each from Eastleigh, Andover, Basingstoke and Broughton.
The results from the Portsmouth Evening News did not include colours, so I have just detailed as supplied which is likely just the winner as the first player named, rather than if they had the White pieces.
| Player | Result | Player | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| GH Baverstock | 1 | S Rysewski | 0 |
| Sq-Ldr L Vine | 1 | SL Russell | 0 |
| AS Dance | 1 | CH Henshaw | 0 |
| A Edmonds | 1 | M Ventham | 0 |
| WC Martin | 1 | NC Taylor | 0 |
| WH Pratten | 1 | JAC Borland | 0 |
A number of well-known Hampshire players participated, with Sq-Ldr L Vine (1953 champion), AS Dance, Wilf Pratten (four time champion) and SL Russell (1935 champion) all playing in the pre-war Championships.
In addition, there were younger players such as Michael Ventham who played in the British U18 championship in 1953 when at King Edward VI School, Southampton. Michael played for Hampshire from 1958 to 1972 (when we left the SCCU). I am not that familiar with a number of the other players although NC Taylor was another Fareham Chess club player and S Rysewski was a member of Southampton Chess club.
Round 2
| Player | Result | Player | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Edmonds | 1 | GH Baverstock | 0 |
| S Rysewski | 1 | M Ventham | 0 |
| NC Taylor | ½ | JAC Borland | ½ |
| WH Pratten | 1 | WC Martin | 0 |
| AS Dance | 1 | Sq-Ldr L Vine | 0 |
| CH Henshaw | 1 | SL Russell | 0 |
AS Dance and Wilf Pratten were the only players to keep a 100% record, both winning their 2nd round matches. Wilf Pratten’s fine win against WC Martin is below, just click on any move to open the board.
Round 3
| Player | Result | Player | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| CH Henshaw | 1 | GH Baverstock | 0 |
| JAC Borland | 1 | WC Martin | 0 |
| AS Dance | 1 | S Rysewski | 0 |
| A Edmonds | 0 | WH Pratten | 1 |
| NC Taylor | 1 | Sq-Ldr L Vine | 0 |
| SL Russell | 0 | M Ventham | 1 |
Both AS Dance and Wilf Pratten won again to keep their 100% records. CH Henshaw and Edmonds stayed in striking distance with two points from their three games. A crucial fourth round game between the two leaders was set to take place.
A Edmonds game against Wilf Pratten was an Evans Gambit.
Round 4
| Player | Result | Player | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| WH Pratten | 1 | AS Dance | 0 |
| CH Henshaw | 1 | A Edmonds | 0 |
| Sq-Ldr L Vine | 1 | JAC Borland | 0 |
| SL Russell | 1 | GH Baverstock | 0 |
| NC Taylor | 1 | S Rysewski | 0 |
| WC Martin | 0 | M Ventham | 1 |
The two players on 100% meet but it was a short game with a tactical combination winning the exchange and soon after the game. CH Henshaw beat A Edmonds to join AS Dance on three points from four games to still be in striking distance of Wilf Pratten with his 100% score.
Round 5
| Player | Result | Player | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| WH Pratten | 1 | CH Henshaw | 0 |
| AS Dance | 0 | NC Taylor | 1 |
| JAC Borland | 0 | A Edmonds | 1 |
| M Ventham | ½ | Sq-Ldr L Vine | ½ |
| GH Baverstock | ½ | WC Martin | ½ |
| SL Russell | 1 | S Rysewski | 0 |
Wilf Pratten kept his 100% score by beating CH Henshaw. NC Taylor moved into second place by beating AS Dance. A Edmonds, AS Dance and CH Henshaw were half a point behind with three points from their five games. The quality of the scan of the Newspaper is better as well, which is good to see.
Round 6
| Player | Result | Player | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| WH Pratten | 1 | NC Taylor | 0 |
| AS Dance | 0 | A Edmonds | 1 |
| CH Henshaw | 0 | Sq-Ldr L Vine | 1 |
| GH Baverstock | 0 | M Ventham | ½ |
| WC Martin | 0 | SL Russell | 1 |
| S Rysewski | 1 | JAC Borland | 0 |
Wilf Pratten beat NC Taylor which meant with the other results he had won the tournament with a round to spare, as reported in the Portsmouth Evening News. This also detailed the changes which had happened this year, removing the preliminary rounds.
Round 7
| Player | Result | Player | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sq-Ldr L Vine | 1 | WH Pratten | 0 |
| NC Taylor | ½ | A Edmonds | 1 |
| M Ventham | 1 | CH Henshaw | 0 |
| SL Russell | 1 | AS Dance (Def) | 0 |
| WC Martin | 1 | S Rysewski | 0 |
| JAC Borland | 1 | GH Baverstock | 0 |
Wilf Pratten lost his final game against Sq-Ldr L Vine, whilst Ventham, Russell, Martin and Borland won their games. The Taylor – Edmonds game was drawn.
This was Wilf Pratten’s fourth and final Hampshire Individual Championship win. His other wins were in 1948, 1949 and 1950 although how many times he entered is unknown at present. He was certainly one of the strongest Hampshire players at this time, although he increasingly was more involved in the organisation side of chess, especially with the Sir William Dupree Junior tournaments.
Final Position Table.
From the newly located Portsmouth News Articles the final positions is now known, with Wilf Pratten finishing one and a half points ahead of three players. This was despite losing his last round. Three strong players shared second position, two of them being future champions (Vine and Edmonds). 1935 champion SL Russell was among the players on 4 points.
| Player | Club | Score |
|---|---|---|
| WH Pratten | Fareham | 6 |
| A Edmonds | Southampton | 4½ |
| M Ventham | Southampton | 4½ |
| Sq-Ldr L Vine | Eastleigh | 4½ |
| SL Russell | Broughton | 4 |
| NC Taylor | Fareham | 4 |
| AS Dance | Andover | 3 |
| CH Henshaw | Basingstoke | 3 |
| JAC Borland | Fareham | 2½ |
| WC Martin | Fareham | 2½ |
| S Rysewski | Southampton | 2 |
| GH Baverstock | Southampton | 1½ |
Acknowledgements and sources:
- British Newspaper Archive
- Portsmouth Evening News
- Britbase
- Roger Paige / Arthur Brameld for Wilf Pratten games
- Hampshire Chess Archives
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