The Hampshire Congress U125 tournament saw an increase in numbers from 20 to 26 this year, which was an excellent improvement. This was six more people than entered the Open, which recently has had more entries than the U125 tournament.

Last years winner Ken Retallack had entered, as had Gillian Moore who won two years ago and last year tried her luck in the Open. 

There were also two payers, who just sneaked in under the grading limit, John Zastapilo of Eastleigh Railway and S.Spikings on University both graded 124. My first impressions were that one of these four players would win the tournament.

Round One

The first surprise was when joint top seed John Zastapilo lost to the ungraded R.Edney from the Isle of Wight, which  immediately confirmed that Mr. Edney was a strong player. Another highly graded player University's A.Syed (121) lost to the improving D.Fields (95) who plays for Southern Water in the Southampton League. D.Fields went on to share the U100 grading prize.

Bob Treloar (79) of Cosham beat A.Hayes (113). Apart from these results there were no surprises, as the higher graded players won their games.

Round Two

R.Edney confirmed that he was going to be a threat to the title with a draw against last year's champion Ken Retallack. D.Cox, D.Fields and Bob Treloar won their 2nd games, to move onto maximum points. John Zastapilo's tournament went from bad to worse, as he lost to S.Roberts (86) of Portsmouth Chess Club.

Round Three

The Saturday afternoon game saw D.Cox against Bob Treloar and D.Fields against the experienced Bob Cleave from Winchester Chess Club. Bob is a difficult player to beat and it was not a surprise when this game ended in a draw. D.Cox got the better of Bob Treloar and was therefore the only player on maximum points after 3 rounds.

Just behind on 2½ points were R.Langham (119) who had won against S.Spikings, C.Goddard (116) who defeated reigning champion Ken Retallack, D.Fields and R.Edney who this time had beat Gillian Moore (119). 

Round Four

The Saturday evening game did not see as many byes as the Open, the Under 125 players seem to have more stamina! D.Cox had the pleasure of meeting the ungraded Mr. Edney this round and Mr. Cox lost his 100% record, as he became the third player to lose to him.

R.Langham also won, beating C.Goddard and therefore joined Mr. Edney in the lead on 3½ points from four games. Just behind were D.Cox, R.Cleave, D.Radford (111) and D.Fields all on 3 points.

Round Five

R.Edney against R.Langham was the top board match and Mr. Edney was again triumphant. Darren Radford beat Rob Cleave and D.Cox beat D.Fields and these two winners were in second place, ½ point behind Mr. Edney.

Round Six

The task of stopping Mr. Edney in the last round was down to Darren Radford, but after a tough battle it was the ungraded Isle of Wight player that won and was successful in winning the Hampshire U125 tournament at his first attempt. Unfortunately for Darren, this meant that he was completely out of the prize List, as his four points was not enough. This was as R.Langham beat Gillian Moore and C.Goddard bear D.Cox to finish on 4½ points and these two took the shared 2nd place.

The Under 100 grading prize was also shared between D.Fields and S.Roberts on 3½ points.

Mr. Edney was a deserving winner of the tournament and hopefully he will be back next year, although I am sure this will be in the Open.