1890 County Chess Association Championship, Cambridge, 23-27 June

1890 Cambridge Class 1, Division 1 • a note on pairings

1890 Cambridge Class 1 Division 1		Residence	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total
1	William Hewison Gunston	Chesterton	&;	1	1	½	1	1	½	½	1	1	7½
2	Joseph Henry Blake	Southampton	0	&;	½	1	1	1	1	½	1	1	7
3	Rev. John Owen	Hooton, Cheshire	0	½	&;	0	1	1	1	1	1	½	6
4	Herbert William Trenchard	London	½	0	1	&;	1	0	1	1	1	½	6
5	Rev. Arthur Bolland Skipworth	Horncastle	0	0	0	0	&;	1	1	1	0	1	4
6	George Edward Wainwright, snr	Teddington	0	0	0	1	0	&;	1	0	1	1	4
7	Edmund Thorold	Bath	½	0	0	0	0	0	&;	1	1	1	3½
8	Henry Walter Peachey	Hackney	½	½	0	0	0	1	0	&;	1	0	3
9	Arthur Reed Ropes	Cambridge	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	&;	1	2
10	George Adolphus Schott	Bradford	0	0	½	½	0	0	0	1	0	&;	2

The Saffron Walden Weekly News (Friday 27 June 1890) gives details of the round schedule, with some information also given in the Pall Mall Gazette for Wednesday 25 June 1890. Round 1 was played on Monday 23 June; rounds 2-3 on Tuesday 24 June; rounds 4-5 on Wednesday 25 June. Two rounds were then presumably played on the Thursday, with single rounds on the Friday and Saturday.

William H Gunston (1856-1941), shown at the 1905 British Championship in Southport (John G White collection, colourised by John Saunders)

1890 Cambridge Class 1, Division 2

1890 Cambridge Class 1 Division 1		Residence	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Total
1	Charles James Lambert	Exeter	&;	1	1	1	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	9
2	Ernest Jones-Bateman	London	0	&;	1	1	1	1	1	1	½	1	1	8½
3	James Samuel West	Leeds	0	0	&;	½	1	1	0	1	1	1	1	6½
4	Dr. Frederick Deighton	Cambridge	0	0	½	&;	½	0	1	1	1	1	1	6
5	(General) Charles Cherry Minchin	Tunbridge Wells	1	0	0	½	&;	1	0	½	1	1	1	6
6	Francis Cooper Burroughs1	Camberwell	0	0	0	1	0	&;	1	½	1	1	1	5½
7	Rev. William Leighton Newham	Aldworth, Berks	0	0	1	0	1	0	&;	½	0	1	1	4½
8	J Wilson	Louth	0	0	0	0	½	½	½	&;	1	1	1	4½
9	William Henry Blythe	Eastbourne	0	½	0	0	0	0	1	0	&;	0	1	2½
10	Joseph William Abbott	London	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	&;	1	2
11	Edward Nourse Rowley Harvey	Dibden	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	&;	0

¹ Francis Cooper Burroughs died later the same year, on 10 December.

Note: two newspapers (Saffron Walden Weekly News for Friday 27 June 1890 & Sheffield Independent for Tuesday 24 June 1890) refer to a Rev. W Hodgson defeating Mr J Abbott in round one of this competition. He must have been a 12th player who subsequently dropped out and whose score was cancelled. I believe this was Rev. Henry William Hodgson, rector of Ashwell (near Baldock) from 1851, born 1821, died 1898, who was a member of the North Herts Chess Club (based at Baldock) around this time. Matr. Balliol, Oxford, 3 June 1840, aged 19. B.A. (Oxford) 1844, M.A. (Oxford) 1847. Further details from Cambridge University Alumni: rowing blue at Oxford, 1841; ord. deacon, 1843; priest, 1844; curate of Wrotham, Kent, 1843-9; curate of All Saints', Maidstone, 1850-1; vicar of Ashwell, Herts., 1851-7; rector there, 1857-92. Rural Dean of Baldock, 1887-92. Resided at Beddington rectory, Surrey, 1892-8. In 1858 he was author of a chess poem (32 pages long!), dedicated to Howard Staunton.

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1890 Cambridge, Class 2

1890 Cambridge Class 2		Residence	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Total
1	Frank Hollins	Handsworth	&;	1	1	1	0	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	11
2	Edmund Macdonald	Bedford	0	&;										1	1	10½
3	Mary Rudge	Barton Regis	0		&;		1							1	1	9½
4	Rev. William Charles Green	Hepworth	0			&;									1	8½
5	Ellen Elizabeth Gorham1	Chislehurst	1		0		&;								1	8
6	R H / R F / A H Taylor	Birmingham	0					&;							1	6½
7	Rev. H A Lewis		0						&;						1	5½
8	Miss (Anna Maria?) Iles2	Lincolnshire	0							&;					1	4
9	Miss F (Florence?) Parkinson3	Brighton	0								&;				1	4
10	Rev. Hugh Currer Briggs4	Plymouth	0									&;			1	3½
11	J Kirk(e)		0										&;		1	3½
12	Sarah Anne Ludovici5	Germany	0	0	0									&;	1	3½
13	Mrs Louise Agnes Rogers5	St Albans	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	&;	0

¹ Also given incorrectly as Gosham and Cosham in BCM, July 1890, pps 264 and 265. The Bristol Times and Mirror (Saturday 12 July 1890) gives the forename initial 'E' in the game score. The Bristol Times and Mirror (Saturday 05 July 1890): "Miss Gorham, formerly of Clifton, who was the first winner of the Junior Cup of the Clifton club." The Saffron Walden Weekly News (Friday 04 July 1890) reported that she was only player to win against Frank Hollins. I have identifed her as Ellen Elizabeth Gorham, born 15 October 1831, Kimbolton, Huntingdonshire/Cambridgeshire, died 27 March 1918, Sidcup, Kent. In the 1891 census she was to be found in Chislehurst, Kent.
² I cannot find conclusive proof that Miss Isles (as she is referred to in the press) was Anna Maria Iles (1830-1900) but there is some circumstantial evidence. She was the only unmarried female called Iles of the right age and social standing in Lincolnshire in the 1891 census and was the great-aunt of a known chess player, namely John Owen Iles (1893-1917) who played for Cambridge University in the Varsity matches of 1913 and 1914.
³ I'm fairly sure Miss F Parkinson was Florence Parkinson, born at Hexgreave, Nottinghamshire, in 1849 and died in the same area of Nottinghamshire in 1929, but domiciled for a long period on the south coast (Hove and Ventnor, Isle of Wight) before returning to her native county.
⁴ Rev. Hugh Currer Briggs's obituary appears in BCM, March 1915, p75.
⁵ Sarah Anne Ludovici (née Rogers, born 1837, died 1904) and Mrs Louise Agnes Rogers (née Louisa Luck, briefly Mrs Lambert in 1879, born c.1857, died 2 March 1953) were sisters-in-law. Sarah's brother (and Louise's husband as of 1883) John Rogers (c.1832-1905) was also a chess player: his obituary appears in BCM, October 1905, p385. After John Rogers' death, his widow Louise married for a third time in 1912 and became Mrs Lapham. Source of info: Tim Harding's Eminent Victorian Chess Players, ppn 157-158. Louise Rogers gave a cup for which the female players were competing and which was won by Mary Rudge.

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Pairings for the Top Section

I'm reasonably confident that I have deduced the pairings used for the top section (relying on newspaper reports, etc), but not the underlying pairing system used. This is despite the fact that we know fairly certainly that Gunston had Black in his first two games and should thus have been draw no.2 if the pairing system was consistent with the the one generally used in round-robin events at that time. However, the following pairings are known from press reports. I'm not 100% certain that there was play on 28 June - it's possible that two rounds were played on Friday 27 June, or that a proportion of the games were played in advance. I have placed an asterisk where colours are not known.

Round No. - Date	1	2	3	4	5
1 - 23 June	Blake v Gunston	Skipworth v Schott	Wainwright v Thorold	Trenchard v Ropes	Owen v Peachey
2 - 24 June	Owen, Blake*	Wainwright v Gunston	Trenchard, Peachey*	Skipworth v Ropes	Thorold, Schott*
3 - 24 June	Wainwright, Schott*	Owen, Ropes*	Blake, Peachey*	Gunston v Trenchard	Skipworth, Thorold*
4 - 25 June	Trenchard, Skipworth*	Blake, Ropes*	Peachey, Wainwright*	Gunston, Thorold*	Owen, Schott*
5 - 25 June	Blake, Schott*	Gunston v Skipworth	Peachey, Ropes*	Thorold v Trenchard	Owen, Wainwright*
6 - 26 June	Thorold v Peachey	Schott v Gunston	Owen, Trenchard*	Skipworth, Blake*	Ropes, Wainwright*
7 - 26 June	Blake v Thorold	Gunston, Ropes*	Owen, Skipworth*	Schott, Peachey*	Trenchard v Wainwright
8 - 27 June	Trenchard v Blake	Owen, Thorold*	Ropes, Schott*	Peachey, Gunston*	Skipworth, Wainwright*
9 - 28 June	Thorold, Ropes*	Skipworth, Peachey*	Owen, Gunston*	Blake, Wainwright*	Schott, Trenchard*
* = colours not known

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File Updated:

Date	Notes
10 October 2023	First upload: 13 games from Class 1, Division 1; 3 games from Class 1, Division 2; and 3 games from the Second Class event. Photo of Gunston, colourised.

© 2023 John Saunders