No. 141 The Trusty Servant
School Round-Up: Sport Win Co Fo:
Our regular correspondent, Canvas turncoat Ben Cunningham( K, 07-12, CoRo, 18-; OTH coach 19-) reviews a thrilling season:
The 2026 season of Win Co Fo was an exceptional one for three reasons: the weather; the closeness of the games; and a Commoners clean sweep. The start of the season brought some of the worst weather in years, turning the Canvases into mud-baths replete with craters of water, and turning Palmer into a lake.
Luckily, the weather took a slight turn for the better in the week before Xs and XVs and play was possible on the Canvases.
The sight of a groundsman using a leaf blower to dry the ad Coll: worms on the morning of XVs was an extraordinary one, and testament to all their immense hard work. The Commoner XV was potentially one of their best in years, and held on to beat OTH 38-35.
The week before XVs, the College X put up a mighty display against OTH and the match ended 34-31 to OTH, but it could easily have been the other way round. The quick Xs turnaround over the weekend played into Commoners’ hands, as did an early injury, and Commoners went on to win 56-37.
After XVs, attention turned to VIs, and, yet again, the weather made play rather tricky( or perhaps a little more oldfashioned than the style of play to which the writer is accustomed!) but the teams ploughed on, with Commoners again beating both College( 47-41) and OTH in an thrilling one-point match( 51-50), with some brilliant kicking from both sides, especially from Isaac Hawkins( K, 2023-) and Sebastian Kingsbury( A, 2021-). The girls’ VIs match was played straight after the boys’ and Commoners were again victorious( 26-16).
And Michael Nevin( CoRo, 74-12) will thrill to the most amazing results of the term: JP Long Game and the VIs Festival, happily once again played on the Canvases, were both draws( 43- 43 and 14-14 respectively). Roll on Common Time 2027!
Chess special
David Follows( CoRo, 04-), coach extraordinaire of chess and croquet, is excited about the future:
Chess has long been one of the“ minor sports” in which Winchester enjoys particular success, although with over 600 million regular players around the world( according to YouGov 1), even before the rapid growth in the last decade, chess has higher participation rates than“ major” sports. One of the strengths of chess at Winchester is that high level of participation, with over 80 players having been to at least one club session in 2025, so that we do best in tournaments with large teams. The Millfield International no longer runs, but with teams of 12, Winchester won that event in 2010 and 2011.
Although there have been highlights over the last 10 years too, including four times qualifying for the National Schools Finals, there is real excitement and hope around the current squad. Results in the last year have been promising, finishing 15th nationally in 2025, out of 351 teams from 220 schools 2. The A team in 2026 has already achieved an impressive 2nd place( on second tie-break from 1st) out of 57 teams in the ECF Eton Schools Rapidplay tournament, which attracts many of the top school teams from the South and Midlands, including a number of titled players. Our depth showed there too, with the B team finishing 19th. The most exciting feature of the current team is its youth, with one player in VI Bk 2 and the rest in lower years, so there is great hope for a golden age in the next two years.
When I started teaching at Winchester, chess was still run as a Saturday School Activity( or was it Saturday Social Activity? – Ed. will know. I remember it as Saturday Skive Activity. Ed) so it was open only to men in Sixth Book. When the SSA programme ended, Jon Hunt( CoRo, 02-12) took up the mantle and moved chess to its current home in A7, where it runs to this day. Jon, aided by the enthusiastic Philite, Roger Baxter( G, 03-08), set the club on a competitive footing, always on the lookout for tournaments, and brought in coach Andrew Martin IM, for a few sessions each term. With chess having moved into half-rems, I was able to help out more and took the reins, assisted by Jeremy Douglas( Coll, 88-92, CoRo, 04-) when Jon moved to Dover. We now host two large events each year: a qualifying round for National Schools for 8 teams, and the Hampshire Megafinal of the UK Chess Challenge for up to 200 local children.
Recently, there has been an international surge in chess-playing and interest, fuelled by several factors: The Queen’ s Gambit being made into a successful television series, the growth of cheaply available web access, the search for things to do during COVID lockdowns the world over, and the passion for the game in India and China. The standard of our opposition has increased as a result, but so too has our intake. If we can continue to attract some of the top chess brains, then the future is bright indeed.
Endnotes
1 YouGov( 2006) [ online ]“ 120806 _ YouGovPressRelease” last accessed 22 / 01 / 2026 https:// www. fide. com / images / stories / NEWS _ 2012 / FIDE / 120806 _ YouGovPressRelease. pdf
2 ECF( 2025) [ online ]“ NSCC Home” last accessed 22 / 01 / 2026 https:// www. englishchess. org. uk / NSCC /
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