The “Finals” saw the NCCU providing 4 of the 6 teams in the top three sections, and an NCCU win was guaranteed a win in at least one of those three sections:

Open	Greater Manchester	v	Surrey	Syston Community Centre, Syston, Leics.
U2050	Yorkshire	v	Greater Manchester	King in the North Archery & Chess, Wakefield, Yorks.
U1850	Yorkshire	v	Middlesex	Syston Community Centre, Syston, Leics.
U1650	Kent	v	Surrey	Tunbridge Wells Bridge Club, Tunbridge Wells, Kent
U1450	Kent	v	Essex	Tunbridge Wells Bridge Club, Tunbridge Wells, Kent
Minor Counties	Norfolk	v	Cambridgeshire	Garboldisham Village Hall, Diss, Norfolk

In four of the six matches the paired counties were contiguous, meaning the “home” team could play on home territory rather than in at an intermediate neutral venue. Matches were scheduled to start at 1.30 p.m., at which point team lists became visible on the LMS system.

As results trickled in slowly, both the Open and Under 1850 matches seemed roughly even. In the Under 2050 match, however, Yorkshire opened up with a 3-0 lead. A draw on board 1 followed. Next came another win. Meanwhile, the Open match opened with 6 draws totalling 3-3, and the Under 1850 opened with eight draws and a single win per team making the score 5-5.

Then, Yorkshire Under 2050s got back into gear with another win making it 5½-½, then another draw pushing the score to 6-1. Meanwhile the Under 1850 added another draw making the score 5½-5½, while the Open added another draw to make the score 3½-3½.

Then, Yorkshire Under 2050s pushed the score on to 8-3 with another win, three more draws and their first loss: just another half-point to win. Meanwhile Surrey scored the first win in the Open match, edging into the lead on 3½-4½. Middlesex Under 1850s similarly edged into the lead with another draw and another win, going into the lead on 6-7 with three games still in play.

The Yorkshire Under 2050s’ win came with a draw on board 10 making the score 8½-3½ with 3 games left in play. More draws in the Open pushed the score to 4-5 in Surrey’s favour. A Yorkshire win in the Under 1850s made the score level again on 7-7 with two games still in play.

Another draw in the Under 2050 match pushed the score to 9-4 to Yorkshire with three games still in play. Two more Yorkshire wins and another Manchester win made the final score In a spate of results in the Open, Surrey clocked up the first two won games of the match, going into a 5½-7½ lead with three games still in play. A further draw and another win a piece made it a win for Surrey on 7-9. In the Under 1850s, by the narrowest of margins on 7½-8½.

So, a disappointment for Greater Manchester who had made a clean sweep by winning all the NCCU qualifying sections, and a success for Yorkshire in reversing their fortunes v Manchester by beating them in the ECF Under 2050 final.

		Open

		Greater Manchester	7‑9	Surrey
1	W	Adam G Ashton	½-½	Supratit Banerjee
2	B	Edward Jackson	1-0	Graeme N Buckley
3	W	Alexander Longson	½-½	Peter D Lalic
4	B	Aidan M Rawlinson	½-½	Gwilym T Price
5	W	Ali Reza Jaunooby	0-1	Stephen Dishman
6	B	Tetsuaki Sanada	½-½	Susan K Lalic
7	W	John L Bentley	½-½	Chris W Baker
8	B	Alan J Walton	½-½	Jonathan James Ady
9	W	Yao Yao Zhu	0-1	Danbe Luk
10	B	Dale R James	½-½	Mark Josse
11	W	Andrew Lewis	½-½	John Hawksworth
12	B	Jerrald Tan	½-½	Daniel B Rosen
13	W	Kyle Pelling	½-½	Marcus E Osborne
14	B	Alannah Ashton	½-½	Clive A Frostick
15	W	Dave Toole	0-1	Zac Welling
16	B	Ondrej Chalupa	½-½	Robert C Noyce

		Under 2050

		Yorkshire	11-5	Greater Manchester
1	W	Toby Quaite	½-½	Andrew I Wilson
2	B	Joe Varley	½-½	Sai Vaddhireddy
3	W	Shriaansh Ganti	1-0	Liam F Rabbitte
4	B	Peter JE Ackley	½-½	Mahin Rughani
5	W	Daniel J Staples	0-1	Dominic M Rabbitte
6	B	Daniel JS Sullivan	1-0	Joel McBeath
7	W	Alex Burke	1-0	Damian M McCarthy
8	B	Patrick Joseph	1-0	Peter J Mulleady
9	W	Mark I Collinson	1-0	Robert A Newton
10	B	Leo A Keely	½-½	Sithun De Silva
11	W	Pete Micklethwaite	½-½	John Robinson
12	B	Jonathan Round	1-0	David Burgess
13	W	Arron Barker	½-½	Adam Tyton
14	B	Mike R Stokes	1-0	Anubhab Gupta
15	W	Mike Bramson	1-0	Martin Pope
16	B	Gerald Cuaresma	0-1	Christopher Hodgson

		Under 1850

		Yorkshire	7½‑8½	Middlesex
1	B	Charlie Wainwright	½-½	Armaan Nilim
2	W	Isaac Fossey	½-½	Liam Fleming
3	B	David A Patrick	½-½	Hubert Bates
4	W	Keith Thompson	1-0	Jack Sheard
5	B	Steve Westmoreland	½-½	Jonathan Kay
6	W	Rupert W Jones	½-½	Arthur Cann
7	B	James Annan	½-½	Simon Healeas
8	W	John George	½-½	Paul Kennelly
9	B	Robert A Dean	½-½	Laith Hayali
10	W	David W Stephenson	½-½	Tom Balmond
11	B	Robin F Browne	0-1	Bharath Jayakumar
12	W	Granville Boot	1-0	Daniel Seaton
13	B	David Robinson	0-1	David J White
14	W	Peter Catt	0-1	Shlok Parakh
15	B	Geoffrey D Brown	½-½	Vibhush Pusapadi
16	W	Gary Corcoran	½-½	Nigel Colter