Cosham A and Gosport A were very close on average grades, with Chichester not far behind. In fact I thought Chichester would have been a major factor in the title race, but a number of their players had a poor season. Gosport B's average grade was helped as always by having Bill Purkiss playing for the B, rather than the A team. Without Bill we would have averaged 134. For this reason, Gosport B were pleased to finish in 4th place.

Chichester A

Chichester managed to pull another 180+ player out of the woodwork this season, Andrew McCumiskey. He started like a house on fire beating Dominic Tunks and although he continued to play well he failed to match this in his other games. What he did bring to the Hampshire Web Site was game analysis, supplying five of his six games, which were very welcome. He even supplied a game that he lost (with a bit of prompting), which is pretty much unheard of. Andew McCumiskey games.

As mentioned in the summary, Chichester A did not have the best of seasons and failed to win a match, this can be seen in the players results. There were a couple of exceptions, but on the whole the players performed below their normal standards. After a great season the previous year both McDougall's had a poor season. with only one draw from eight games. On the plus side Ray Williams played well with four wins, three draws and only one loss. The other good point was the return of Steve Smith to the Hampshire fold, playing for the Under 150 team. Hopefully we will see him in the other County teams next season.

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Cosham A

Cosham A just missed out on the title this year, finishing one match point behind Gosport A. They were helped by the return of two strong players, namely R.Puchades and W.Muir.  These players were certainly an asset as they both played to about 160 strength this season. When Cosham A get their strongest team out, they are very strong and they had some impressive wins, including 5 - 1 wins against the other two strong teams, Gosport A and Emsworth A.  As mentioned, they lost twice and drew once which is where the title was lost. Both losses were by the narrowest of margins (3½ - 2½) so I am sure next season Cosham A will be pushing for the championship again.

Result wise, Keith Gregory was the only player to perform over 200 strength in Division One and his wins were against strong players namely Bill Purkiss, Dominic Tunks and W.McDougall. John Wheeler had an excellent unbeaten season and Tony Carter had a return to form performing well in excess of his current grade.

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Emsworth A

Emsworth A finished in third place again this season, just one point behind Cosham and one further point behind Gosport A. These were the two teams Emsworth A lost to and they also had two draws, against Gosport A and Chichester A.  Looking at the Emsworth team it seems that on the top five boards they are pretty strong, but on board six they are a bit weaker against the top teams (½ point from four games against the top two teams). 

If Emsworth can get the best team out against Gosport A and Cosham B they will probably do OK, but playing in another league as well means this is not always possible. So either Emsworth A need another player to fill this gap, or the league changes to a five board team, which is what Emsworth proposed at the Portsmouth AGM last season (and I think they may put the same proposal at this year's AGM).

Martin Buckley and Malcolm Body had the best season for Emsworth, with Martin beating R.Puchades, Graham Stuart. Ian Judd and A.McDougall whilst Malcolm beat Ian Judd, Martin Newbury and A.H.McDougall. By his own high standards Dominic Tunks had a poor season, although this was the year when he had his best ever individual result (beating IM Robert Gwaze at this year's Portsmouth Congress).

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Gosport A

I'm still trying to work out how Gosport A managed to retain their title, as they scored under 60% as a team, they had 11 individual losses compared to Cosham's 6 (or 7 with a default) and they scored 3½ less game points than Cosham as well!

I think it comes down to a couple of points, Roger Marsh's excellent captaincy, in managing to get the best team out for the important matches and ensuring that there are six regular strong players in the team. The second point is not always possible, but was greatly helped by the return of Mathew Ludbrook this season. You may question the board orders of Roger's teams, but not the results! It certainly helps when you have someone of the calibre of John Jones (an ex 200 strength player and board one for Hampshire) playing on board four or below in your team, John did the business as always, only dropping half a point in six games.

Both John and Matthew had excellent seasons, but Roger also managed to perform well. Whilst he was having an extremely poor season in the Southampton League, he managed to protect his grade by remaining unbeaten in the Portsmouth League, with wins against W.McDougall, Bill Purkiss and Paul Massey.

Gosport will be trying to win the championship for the fifth consecutive time next season and if they do this, it will be a fantastic achievement. This is not a team that has been head and shoulders above the other teams (as per Southern Water in the Southampton League in the early / mid 1990's, for those that remember), but a team that has won the championship in a very competitive league. So congratulations to Roger and the other members of the A team on their achievement for this year.

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Gosport B