Traditionally, the final-round matches of ALL sections were held as the same venue at the same time, which arguably disadvantaged counties at the geographical extremities of the country such as Devon. In recent years, the final of a given section has been played at a venue roughly equally convenient or inconvenient to both teams involved, though all sections were normally played on the same day. Then, in 2024, in spite of the prepublished rules, one section’s final was allowed to be played week early, a thing hitherto unthinkable.

The 2026 finals, like those of 2025, followed the now-standard format of match-specific venues, all on the same day, which date this tear was Saturday the 4th of July. Venues were as follows:

Championship	Wanstead House Community Association, London
U-2050	Coventry Campus, University of Warwick
U-1850	Beech House School, Rochdale, Gr. Manchester
U-1650	Coventry Campus, University of Warwick
U-1450	Wanstead House Community Association, London
Minor Counties	Village Hall, Garboldisham, Norfolk

Northern County teams involved were

Yorkshire U-2050, who beat Essex U-2050,

Merseyside U-1850 and Yorkshire U-1850 playing each other, with Merseyside winning,

Greater Manchester U-1650, who suffered a car breakdown going to the venue and went on to lose to Kent when otherwise they might well have won.

Mick Norris reports that the Gr. Manchester captain’s car broke down en route to the venue. That car was carrying those due to play on boards 2, 3 and 6, as well as some of the equipment. At the venue, 2 dads stepped in to fill two boards, but bottom bard had to be defaulted. There was obviously adequate spare playing equipment.

	Under-2050

	Essex	7½-8½	Yorkshire
B	Ashwin GopiKrishna	1-0	Christopher Bak
W	John H Hodgson	½-½	Martin Carpenter
B	Ryan M Smith	½-½	Gerald Cuaresma
W	Michael Catabay	½-½	Mark I Collinson
B	Robert T Killeen	½-½	Mike Bramson
W	Peter Jaszkiwskyj	1-0	Leo A Keely
B	Steven JL Rix	1-0	Daniel W Hill
W	Igor Gaponov	0-1	Charlie Wainwright
B	Ivan J Myall	0-1	Nathanael Lancelot
W	Rezin C Catabay	0-1	Maharnab Choudhury
B	Edgar Wilson	0-1	James P Collier
W	Martin McCall	1-0	Jonathan Round
B	David Flynn	½-½	David C Wedge
W	Paul H Kenning	½-½	David A Patrick
B	Neville H Twitchell	½-½	Roger W Jennings
W	Ian D Hunnable	0-1	Dale H Cullum

	Under-1850

	Merseyside	8½-7½	Yorkshire
B	Andrew Korzhov	½-½	Adamjeet Singh
W	Dominic Bulman	1-0	Vidhyuth Kavin Sudagar
B	Steven Lee	½-½	William Peacock
W	Joe Ledgerton	½-½	Zak Tomlinson
B	David Stuttard	0-1	James Annan
W	Phil Owen	½-½	Granville Boot
B	Kevin A Sartain	1-0	Jacob Smith
W	Michael Barooah	0-1	Peter F Mason
B	Phil Ramsey	1-0	David W Stephenson
W	Aidan Berry	1-0	Steve Westmoreland
B	David CA Colbourne	0-1	Jay Ryalls
W	Chris Kaye	1-0	Geoffrey D Brown
B	Graham AG Williamson	1-0	David Booth
W	David Barnes	½-½	Peter Catt
B	Ryan Ng	0-1	Randolph E Donahue
W	Atharv Jadhav	0-1	Amandeep Singh

	Under-1650

	Greater Manchester	7-9	Kent
B	William Bartlett	½-½	Max Dinley
W	Paul Leonard	1-0	Niraj Alok
B	Edward Chu	1-0	Robert G Thompson
W	Graham Phythian	½-½	Joe Eagle
B	Joel Prittie	0-1	Nick Allen
W	Monika K Szozdowska	1-0	Tom Benson
B	Vehant Sharma	0-1	James F McKenna
W	Steven White	1-0	Mike Hawkes
B	John Donegan	0-1	Cindy Gilbertson
W	Philip Clare	0-1	John R McKenna
B	Anthony Jinks	0-1	Martin E Newman
W	David Kilmartin	1-0	Alan D Evans
B	Sam Bartlett	0-1	David J Gilbert
W	Charlie Locke	1-0	Gary R Clifford
B	Yin Chu	0-1	Paul Hobbs
W	Default	0-1	Chris D Brown