Telepost once again faced off against Newport in the final of the Cox Trophy.
Both sides were full strength and fairly evenly matched.
On board 4 Ian Jamieson secured a pleasant position against John Westhead with far more more active pieces in the middle game and his white bishop cemented on c6. Ian pushed for a win but overpressed allowing John to win a pawn and completely turn the tables. However, low on time, John offered a draw which Ian gladly accepted.
Phil Zabrocki had David Lord under severe pressure for most of the game on board 3. His rooks were bearing down on David’s kingside and his pieces started to infiltrate. David kept clinging on though and Phil couldn’t find the breakthrough, eventually settling for a peaceful result. This meant the match came down to the top 2 boards.
Next to finish was board 1. Nigel Ferrington and Nick Rutter played out a very quiet game and entered a rook and minor piece endgame with Nick defending a couple of isolated pawns on the queenside whilst Nigels pawns were solid and connected on the kingside. A well timed push of Harry the h-pawn meant that Nigel managed to shatter Nick’s structure on the kingside as well, adding further complications to Nick’s defence and it all started to crumble until eventually Nick was forced to concede.
Last to finish was Fred Bench and Chris Lewis. They had played a game of fireworks from start of finish with all caution thrown to the wind and the complications stacking up in a King’s Indian. With black storming the queenside and white storming the kingside Chris overlooked Rf4 when the initiative turned. Chris fought back in the centre but completely failed to spot the tactics after 30. d7!! which would have forced black to sac his own rook on f2 or end up signficiantly worse (although the position was so complex by that stage neither side knew what was going on). Instead white retreated his queen and after Fred offered another rook sacrifice with rf4, and with both sides extremely low on time, white sacced his knight on g6 in a final hail mary to expose the black king. After many more moves the position ended up knight, bishop and pawn vs bishop, and about 50 moves later, just knight and bishop vs king. Fred then demonstrated excellent technique to checkmate Chris’ king, sealing the match for Telepost.
Congratulations Telepost – this year’s 
Cox Trophy Winners!
Cox Trophy Winners!| Telepost | Result | Newport |
| Nigel Ferrington | 1-0 | Nick Rutter |
| Fred Bench | 1-0 | Chris Lewis |
| Phil Zabrocki | 0.5-0.5 | David Lord |
| John Westhead | 0.5-0.5 | Ian Jamieson |
