SHEFFIELD Chess History |
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1885: Sheffield Athenaeum Chess Club v. Rest of the Sheffield & District CA |
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Played in the dining room of the Sheffield Athenaeum Club on Thursday, 22/01/1885, over 19 boards, 2 games per board, time permitting.
The number of boards for this match had originally been fixed as 25, “but only 19 of the Association team put in an appearance, so the match was played over only 19 boards.
George A. Askham acted as captain for the Athenaeum side, and while E. Barraclough and H. C. Twist acted as joint captains for the Association team.
Play began at 7.30 p.m., and went on until 10.30 p.m. at which point unfinished games were adjudicated by Mr. A. Davy (Athenaeum) and the Rev. E. J. Huntsman (Association). The result was a win for the Association.
Results as reported by the Sheffield Daily Telegraph of 24/01/1885 were as follows:
The report had clearly been submitted by an Athenaeum member, perhaps George Askham, as it was written in tones implying (reasonable) criticism of the S&DCA producing only 19 players for a 25-board match, and it lacked a number of initials of Association players (indicated in the report by dashes), though was laudably well supplied with forenames on the Athenaeum side. The report seemingly suggested victory might have gone to the Athenaeum had 25 boards been contested, though in reality it was the Association which looked slightly stronger in depth.
That the Association won seems indicative that chess in Sheffield at grass-root level was strengthening significantly. The first such match (that of 1883) had been won by the Athenaeum 35½-14½.
The identities of the players would appear to be as follows:
* Huntsman junior will have been one of the Rev. E. J. Huntsman’s three chess-playing sons; usually it was “G. A. Huntsman”, when only one son was playing and named explicitly, but this could conceivably have been Alfred Edmund Francis Fonnereau Huntsman, or Hugh De Cisspigny Huntsman.
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Created 22/08/2014 |
Copyright © 2014 Stephen John Mann |
Last Updated 22/08/2014 |