The second Glorney Cup, held in Birmingham, July 27-28, 1949, featured three teams, with Wales joining Ireland and England. (Scotland were due to take part, but seem to have dropped out shortly before the event.)
The OlimpBase page gives the final match results and scores. England won again, after a 3½-2½ win against Ireland and a 5½-½ win over Wales. Ireland beat Wales 3½-2½ to finish second.
The OlimpBase report mentions that the game W. Marshall (Wales) versus M. Fagan (Ireland) won the best game prize. I haven’t seen that mentioned in other sources, but the game itself was given by J. J. Walsh in his Irish Times column several years later. Up to now, it has not appeared in any databases, including the ICU games collection.
The diagram shows the position after Fagan’s 19… h5?. Play continued 20. f5! exf5 21. Rxh5! gxh5? (better 21… Bd7, though White is still much better) 22. Rxf5, and one way or another the black queen will be lost. After 22… Qxf5 23. Bxf5 the raw material balance (queen and pawn versus two rooks) was about level, but Black’s open king position gave White an overwhelming advantage. (Move the h5 pawn to g7 in that position and Black is still very much in the game.)
[Click to replay the full game.]
Black was Michael Fagan, Irish Schools’ Champion in 1949; in this photo from around that time he’s playing Black in the game nearest the camera (cf. puzzle and solution from a few years ago). He won his other game in the 1949 Glorney Cup, on board 1 against England, defeating M. Barker.
The Irish team was Michael Fagan, T. Conlon (runner-up in the Irish Schools’ Championship), J. J. Walsh (Leinster Schools’ Champion), Brian Canton, Fintan Doyle, and F. Maher.