Gosport A

John Jones was pretty much unstoppable this season, with eight wins from nine games. In fact his only loss was to Paul Eyles of Portsmouth Chess Club, who was graded 71 points less than John! 

Martin Newbury turned in an impressive performance, with 5 wins and 5 draws, which included a win against this year's big hitter Mike Krawczuk of Emsworth. Rodger Marsh and Arthur Brameld were probably disappointed with their results this season, as they fell below their usual standard.

All in all, Gosport A had an excellent season and did not seem to be affected by having Bill Purkiss playing solely for the B team (which we needed), as they won the league without too much trouble.

Cosham A

Cosham A looked like they were going to finish third in the league, but a fine finish saw them take the second spot from Emsworth A. This was completed in style, with a 5 - 1 win against Emsworth in their last game of the season. 

Cosham did not always have their strongest side available for matches and this probably cost them crucial points in matches against Emsworth and Chichester. They were also the only team to stop Gosport A, drawing both matches, which if they had won, could have made a big difference to the championship. Cosham would have probably benefited if Keith Gregory played more games, as although un-graded he has been highly graded in the past.

On the individual results front, you can see that the majority of players performances were not that different to their grades, with the exception of Martin Buckley, who performed below his normal level. Probably the best performance was by Tony Carter, who only lost the one game all season.

Emsworth A

The players from Petersfield (which folded last year) moved to Emsworth Chess Club, which certainly strengthened the Emsworth team this season. At one stage, it seemed that Emsworth were in with an excellent chance of winning the league, but they faded towards the end of the season and finished third behind Gosport A and Cosham A.

Having the reigning Hampshire Individual Champion on board one is always going to help a team and Dominic did not disappoint, only losing the one game and performing over 190. Mike Krawczuk had an excellent season in the other Portsmouth divisions and the Hampshire County team; but although he performed higher than his grade his Division One performance was probably his worst of any competition this season. It is good to see Ian Cary returning to chess again and he did not seem to be too rusty. His trait of not using a lot of time in his games continued. Whether this is good or bad, is still out to jury, but it can be unpleasant to play against a player who replies so soon after you have made your move.

Emsworth A will have the added problem of two teams in division one next season, as the B team gained the division two promotion spot. This can cause problems, if you rely on players playing for both teams. I think there are enough players at Emsworth for them to field two reasonable teams in Division One, but it will be interesting to see how the teams are split. Will Emsworth put all the best players in the A team, or have some of the better players in the B team? Time will tell.

Chichester A

Chichester never struggled, but also never really challenged this season.  Although the strongest team was not always available, 4 players did manage to play the majority of games. Critically Chichester have a couple of juniors coming through, which will help them greatly next season. 

W.M.McDougall had an excellent season managing a plus three score on top board, this included two wins against John Wheeler and draws against Dominic Tunks, David Pye and Arthur Brameld.  The other three players who played eight games or more also performed better than their grade, so it's surprising that Chichester only scored 50% for the season. As mentioned, this is probably due to the strongest team not always playing and it is noticeable that the team was much stronger at home than it was away (three of their four wins were at home).

If Chichester are going to challenge next season, they will probably need to ensure that their travelling team is as strong as their home team.

Gosport B

Being the second weakest team by a fair margin, Gosport B did well to win four games and only lose six. This was helped by Bill Purkiss playing for the B team, rather than the A team. This gave us the strength on top board, which helped the players playing below, as they then had slightly easier games than they would have had. This can be seen in the matches won, as Bill was playing in three of the four wins. 

Performance wise Bill also produced the best result, almost playing to 200 strength. His three victims included  Arthur Brameld and David Pye. Dave Holmes also played well knocking up four wins and four valuable draws, he obviously managed his time trouble a bit better than he does sometimes!

It is difficult having two teams in the same division and Gosport B were helped by the fact that Portsmouth A were not going to be competitive this season. Next season may be different though as the division will probably be stronger, depending on the strength of Emsworth B.

Portsmouth A

Portsmouth had major troubles this year, losing players and never seeming to get a consistent team out. J.Pickett, one of their strongest players only played the one game and Alan Evens and Mick Garrod only played five games between them. With this sort of handicap, Portsmouth were not really competitive, as they only really had two players of Division One standard playing regularly. Portsmouth can count themselves unlucky not to score at least one match point though, as they lost four matches by the narrowest of margins. 

David Pye continued to play board one, which gives Portsmouth some hope of bouncing back next season, if he is willing to play Division Two chess. He scored just under his grade and Ian Matthew scored exactly his grade, apart from this there were probably only two bits of good news. One was the performance of F.Thadei and Paul Eyles's win against John Jones, which was probably the upset of the season.

It will be interesting to see what happens at Portsmouth Chess Club next season,

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