Playing Board One for County

[GrahamStuart]

Maybe this should be under the County Championship section?

I was collecting paperwork from Hampshire player Arthur Brameld and over a coffee we discussed County Chess board one appearances. Although I certainly don't have all the records (64 missing matches from 1990 to 2000 for example), I do have approx. 90% of them and our records are below. I have only included the A team, but this does include Chiltern League graded sections, when this was for the top team e.g. Under 200, 180 etc.

I wondered which player holds the record for all counties?

For Hampshire Joseph Blake pretty much played board one from 1887 to 1932 and scored a very impressive 73% from his 113 board one appearances.

Frank Elwell played behind Blake (and Alexander) almost 3 times as many times as the next player and a number of well known players are in both lists.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

This should be easy to do (in theory) for the big counties. I know the records exist for Middlesex, and I suspect Surrey and Kent and Essex as well.

What is the reason for the missing records for 1990 to 2000? Surely the BCF records or records of opposing counties would help? Or was the county playing at a lower level then, where records are patchier?

What strength were Blake and Elwell at their peak? You imply that a couple of times someone played board 1 above Blake and Elwell (but that Elwell always played below Blake), am I reading that right?

[GrahamStuart]

ECF rating Online results are from about 2000. Eventually I may be able to locate some of the missing ones. Not a quick and easy task. I have all the match results, but not the board results from this period. A lot of the older ones were either in SCCU Bulletin, WECU Westward Ho! and newspapers (from British Newspaper Archives). More effort will be undertaken as I go forward but I do have individual results from over 1000 matches (17700 individual results).

Blake played in the British Championship several times and lost a play-off to Atkins in 1909. https://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/19 ... iewer.html

Was probably 2400 - 2450 level at his peak.

Elwell was about 2300 - 2350 at his peak, but probably 2250 for the majority.

Sir George Thomas played above Blake once and CHOD Alexander played for Hampshire from the year after Blake stopped playing when he was a Professor at Winchester College. He played board one in all bar one of his games (when Thomas played on board one) and Elwell played behind Alexander.

Thomas mainly played for Hampshire at the start of his career and for the odd match when he was stronger.

[Ian Thompson]

The numbers and/or arithmetic in table doesn't appear to be correct for everyone - Mike Lambshire 5.5/11 = 55%.

[GrahamStuart]

The numbers and/or arithmetic in table doesn't appear to be correct for everyone - Mike Lambshire 5.5/11 = 55%.

Looks like an adjourned game which I don't have the final result for. As a quick and dirty extract I did not check all the details. Probably should have just added games played rather than include the results as this was the main reason for the post.

[MJMcCready]

This should be easy to do (in theory) for the big counties. I know the records exist for Middlesex, and I suspect Surrey and Kent and Essex as well.

What is the reason for the missing records for 1990 to 2000? Surely the BCF records or records of opposing counties would help? Or was the county playing at a lower level then, where records are patchier?

What strength were Blake and Elwell at their peak? You imply that a couple of times someone played board 1 above Blake and Elwell (but that Elwell always played below Blake), am I reading that right?

Hi there, where do the records exist for Middlesex please?

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I had assumed Anthony Fulton would have records going that far back. He certainly had (has) complete player records from the start of his tenure as Senior Match Captain and maybe before. Not sure how far back it would be possible to go.

https://www.middlesexchess.com/history/legacy-website

[MJMcCready]

Does Middlesex even exist anymore? Apolgies if that sounds facile but wasnt there an act in 1965 which took away administrative powers and so on? I seem to recall Potters Bar was once part of Middlesex, Staines too I think. Rather jokingly, some of us in the home counties like to say there is no Middlesex anymore, it got swallowed up by London.

[John Townsend]

There is an entry in the catalogue of the National Archives:

Middlesex County Chess Association

papers including minutes and correspondence
Date: 1907-2002

This record is held by The London Archives: City of London
Reference: B08/145

[Kevin Thurlow]

There are counties which use traditional boundaries. It would be too confusing to constantly argue over boundaries and name changes, er, well for the most part.

[Jon D'Souza-Eva]

When the Chiltern League (local county chess competition for Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Hampshire) had a grading limit of 200 I used to really struggle as I was always one of the top few boards for Oxfordshire.

Then in 2011 the grading limit was scrapped and I looked forward to playing much further down the team. In the first match of the season I found myself on board 3, and despite getting a completely undeserved win against Shawn Tavares, I was very unhappy that we hadn't got a few more of the stronger players out and begged the Oxfordshire captain Ian Brooke, to try harder next time.

Next time was just a month later, and I was horrified to see that I was top board and consoled myself with the thought that at least I was giving nineteen other players a slighter easier opponent. However my opponent turned out to be another sub 200 player, Hans Hansen, and he looked quite tired. We agreed a very quick draw and my career as top board for the Oxfordshire Open team was over, with a 50% record.

[John Townsend]

It seems odd when I think of it today, but there was (at least) one occasion when my services on top board for Berkshire were called upon. On 27 January 1973, I had to face Dr. J. Penrose, of Essex. What is more surprising is that it was a home match for us, so you would have thought a stronger opponent could have been found for the several times British Champion.

[Roger de Coverly]

It seems odd when I think of it today, but there was (at least) one occasion when my services on top board for Berkshire were called upon. On 27 January 1973, I had to face Dr. J. Penrose, of Essex. What is more surprising is that it was a home match for us, so you would have thought a stronger opponent could have been found for the several times British Champion.

The historic link is https://www.sccu-chess.com/bulletins/SC ... 973_92.pdf

Although you had played board 1 that season when DJ Walsh and Gareth Pearce were not available, the Penrose game was actually board 2. For some reason Essex were persuaded to play E Klein above Penrose, despite Klein only reapperaing after the 1972 match.

[Leonard Barden]

The historic link is https://www.sccu-chess.com/bulletins/SC ... 973_92.pdf
Although you had played board 1 that season when DJ Walsh and Gareth Pearce were not available, the Penrose game was actually board 2. For some reason Essex were persuaded to play E Klein above Penrose, despite Klein only reapperaing after the 1972 match.

Board 1 was actually Klein's condition for playing, as I learnt from Richard O'Brien when negotiating for Klein to take part in the London 1973 invitation Swiss tournament.

[John Townsend]

Roger, thanks for pointing that out. My score-book didn't record the board number, but I have added it now. You know it's a tough school when you turn up for a match and find Penrose on board two! My best result on top board was when I fluked a draw against A.J. Whiteley (Oxon.), 17 March 1973.