Longines King George V Gold Cup winner Peter Charles is likely to be back in action next week - attempting a Nations Cup salvage mission.

Liverpool-born Charles scooped Britain's biggest showjumping jackpot of 2009 at Hickstead, landing the £50,000 first prize and ending a 10-year wait for home success in the Royal International Show finale.

And the 49-year-old, a former European individual champion who competed in two Olympic Games for Ireland before switching his allegiance back to Great Britain, now faces a Dublin D-day.

Britain's Nations Cup fate will be decided on Friday week in Ireland. They are currently ninth out of 10 teams, with relegation a distinct possibility.

British chef d'equipe Derek Ricketts though, can take heart from events on the final day at Hickstead when Charles, Tim Stockdale and Ben Maher produced a clean sweep.

All three are expected to be named in the team for Dublin, when Britain know they must deliver the goods.

Charles and Murkas Pall Mall H recorded the solitary clear round in a seven-horse King George jump-off.

Stockdale (Fresh Direct Corlato) and Maher (Robin Hood W), who, together with Charles, are likely to forge Britain's team for the European Championships in Windsor next month, both clocked quicker times.

But they each had a fence down - in Stockdale's case the last - and Charles prevailed.

A former Hickstead Derby champion, Charles now joins an illustrious King George roll of honour that also includes the likes of Harry Llewellyn, David Broome, Harvey Smith and the famous Italian rider Piero d'Inzeo.

Charles said: "It means a lot to me. I have been trying to win this class for an awful long time, and to get it done before I am too old is great!

"It is one of the greatest days in my showjumping career, certainly the biggest (since returning to British colours).

"I knew he would be quick, so it was about trying to lay down a challenge in the jump-off. It's a game of chess - how fast can you go and leave the fences up?

"It always means something to win it at home - we know what the King George means."

Second-placed Stockdale collected £30,000, with Maher banking £24,000 of a £162,000 prize fund.

The remaining five places were all filled by continental riders - Frenchman Olivier Guillon (fourth), Belgium's Pieter Devos (fifth), Dutch rider Harry Smolders (sixth), Frederik Cattebeke (Belgium) in seventh and Janne-Friederike Meyer (Germany) eighth.

As for Corlato's display, Stockdale said: "This is her second show back (from illness), so I couldn't be more delighted with how she has jumped.

"She's a fighting horse, she has a lot of heart and she pulled it out in every department.

"I was galloping flat out at the last fence, but I got too close to it. I can't believe how miserable I am at winning £30,000!"

While the British trio celebrated, though, there were several hard luck stories of the King George first round, with Meyer, Geoff Billington and his fellow British rider Robert Smith all going clear, but each recording one time fault.

And there was no dream double for Laura Renwick and Limelight de Breve - winners of the Old Lodge Queen Elizabeth II Cup on Saturday - whose King George hopes ended with a first-fence knockdown.