Following on from the Open final which, by way of an exception, was played a week early (see here), the five remaining finals were played on Saturday the 6th of July, 2024, at three venues in Bradford, Coventry and Whittlesford (Cambs.) as follows:

Section	Opponents & Venue	Match Arbiter
Under-2050,	Greater Manchester v Cleveland, at Bradford Latvian Club	Peter Ackley
Under-1850,	Hertfordshire v Greater Manchester, at Coventry	Chun Chui
Under-1650,	Greater Manchester v Yorkshire, at Bradford Latvian Club	Harrison Marriott
Under-1450,	Middlesex v Essex, at Whittlesford, 7 miles south of Cambridge	Francis Bowers
Minor,	Sussex v Lincolnshire, at Whittlesford	Rob Hammond

The match arbiters are those updating the League Management System “live”, thereby facilitating this report.

The result of the U-2050 match Greater Manchester v Cleveland in the NCCU stage was 7½-4½ in favour of Greater Manchester.

The result of the U-1650 match Greater Manchester v Yorkshire in the NCCU stage was 6½-5½ in favour of Yorkshire.

The NCCU matches were played over only 12 boards, whereas the ECF Final matches (except possibly in the U-1450, as this year) will be over 16 boards, and this difference can tilt the odds the opposite way.

In the Under-2050, Manchester fairly easily put an end to Cleveland’s creditable campaign through the NCCU then ECF stages. In fact Cleveland were no notching up any won games, until in the later stages of proceedings Cleveland’s board 1 turned in a win as then did their board 6. Manchester had strength in depth - due presumably to a far greater population to draw from.

In the Under-1850, Hertfordshire were slightly ahead most of the time as results accumulated, but then things shifted to 7-7 but with Manchester looking like winning on board count if it ran to 8-8. That is in fact what happened.

In the Under-1650 match, by the time Yorkshire was 8-5 ahead, even if Manchester won all remaining games Yorkshire would win on board count.

Board-by-board results in matches involving NCCU teams were as follows. Ratings not in parentheses are those of 1st September 2023, being the ones which determine eligibility. The ones in parentheses are these from 1st July (the current month), which determine board order on the day.

Under 2050

		Greater Manchester	12½‑3½	Cleveland
W	2019 (2061)	Lee Kay	0-1	Francis Batchelor	2047 (2056)
B	2018 (2023)	Andrew I Wilson	1-0	Giuseppe Magazzù	1975 (1990)
W	1901 (2018)	Tetsuaki Sanada	1-0	John S Garnett	1963 (1948)
B	1994 (2005)	Robert A Newton	½-½	Kevin J Wilson	1958 (1943)
W	1900 (1991)	George Turner	1-0	Andrew M Smith	1929 (1941)
B	1958 (1981)	Chris Vassiliou	0-1	Luke Owen	1889 (1918)
W	2007 (1957)	Damian M McCarthy	1-0	Stephen Cole	1923 (1867)
B	1948 (1956)	Peter J Mulleady	½-½	Nicholas Webb	1757 (1890)
W	1891 (1970)	Alannah Ashton	1-0	Jonathan Sams	1814 (1831)
B	2018 (1920)	Noel S McLaughlin	½-½	Martin McLoughlin	1820 (1817)
W	1876 (1913)	Joel McBeath	1-0	Dominic Leigh	1692 (1776)
B	1845 (1907)	John Robinson	1-0	Royce Parker	1749 (1774)
W	1859 (1898)	Joel Hutchinson	1-0	Suresh Keswani	1750 (1629)
B	1902 (1904)	Adam Tyton	1-0	Ryan McGrane	1735 (1739)
W	1897 (1864)	Steven Potter	1-0	Peter Harker	1672 (1731)
B	1916 (1871)	Kelechukwu Nkwonta	1-0	Stephen J jnr Roe	1708 (1644)
	ave. 1935				ave. 1837

Under 1850
				(win on board count)
		Hertfordshire	8-8	Greater Manchester
B	1833 (1865)	Paul Walton	0-1	Mahin Rughani	1690 (1932)
W	1818 (1851)	Andrew Maclaren	0-1	Sai Vaddhireddy	1761 (1952)
B	1841 (1846)	Roger H Gordonsmith	1-0	Amy Lovatt	1831 (1867)
W	1826 (1850)	Andrew Roderick	½-½	Christopher Hodgson	1821 (1863)
B	1758 (1799)	Matthew P Ball	½-½	Chris Jardine	1803 (1852)
W	1772 (1789)	David Willsher	1-0	Alexander Burke	1748 (1845)
B	1736 (1773)	James H Aldred	½-½	Armand Catz	1799 (1822)
W	1735 (1741)	Jon P Barnes	½-½	Hunain Malik	1681 (1807)
B	1717 (1746)	Michael Flatt	½-½	Tarini Jayawarna	1733 (1780)
W	1692 (1735)	Jose Serrano	½-½	Sithun De Silva	1732 (1807)
B	1733 (1730)	Patrick Fitzgerald	0-1	Michael I Connor	1735 (1738)
W	1731 (1714)	Michael K Price	0-1	Nathan Harvey‑Jones	1698 (1741)
B	1679 (1688)	Nimish Shah	1-0	Marcus Fung	1713 (1719)
W	1629 (1663)	Andrew Spanoudakis	0-1	Marlon Espiritu	1758 (1723)
B	1457 (1619)	Harry Bellano	1-0	Jeremi Ignasiak	1628 (1726)
W	1627 (1635)	Louis Cowell	1-0	Richard Leese	1692 (1689)
	ave. 1724				ave. 1739

Under 1650

		Greater Manchester	6‑10	Yorkshire
W	1599 (1714)	David Agyemang	½‑½	Toby Quaite	1649 (1834)
B	1561 (1700)	Ethan Parker	0-1	Charlie Wainwright	1585 (1767)
W	1645 (1706)	Vijay Kumar	½-½	Jacob Smith	1647 (1687)
B	1647 (1687)	Paul Leonard	0-1	Nathan Madzia	1579 (1678)
W	1569 (1688)	Mohammed Andeel	1-0	John Grasham	1604 (1685)
B	1581 (1603)	Matthew Poon	0-1	Isaac Fossey	1552 (1673)
W	1625 (1628)	Chagdarsuran Batbileg	1-0	Colin Frank	1575 (1636)
B	1538 (1642)	Zac Walsh	0-1	Angelica Rowe	1596 (1626)
W	1632 (1618)	Graham Phythian	1-0	Ian D Strickland	1612 (1623)
B	1606 (1603)	Steven M Flaherty	0-1	Robert Dennington	1599 (1631)
W	1572 (1592)	Grant Randall	½-½	Vidur Bhalavat	1591 (1621)
B	1494 (1596)	Chris Gallagher	0-1	Colin Weller	1599 (1632)
W	1417 (1574)	Ashton Morrissey	0-1	Hamidreza Faham	1596 (1601)
B	1550 (1577)	Paul Curran	0-1	Andrew Batley	1519 (1537)
W	1502 (1600)	Mohammed Rohman	½-½	John G Taylor	1494 (1499)
B	1495 (1538)	Aram Marsh	1-0	John Tate	1507 (1485)
	ave. 1565				ave. 1582

The other matches’ results were:

Under 1450, Middlesex 8-4 Essex

Minor Counties, Sussex 8-8 Lincolnshire with Sussex winning on board count