The ABF has learned that dates for the 2015 NEC Cup are Tuesday Feb 10 – Sunday Feb 15. This overlaps the planned dates for the ABF Open and Women’s Team Playoffs, Friday Feb 6 – Wednesday Feb 11. We recognise that historically a number of leading Australian players have played in both events, and we have explored options for avoiding the clash.
Unfortunately there are many conflicts limiting what alternatives we can offer.
For instance, we considered moving either the Open or the Seniors’ playoffs to April, but

• Easter and the Jewish Passover both fall in April, as do school holidays in many places.
• We believe playoffs later in April may not allow enough time to organise travel, accommodation and leave from work for the APBF Championships in Bangkok in May.
• Most critically, playoffs in April would not allow us to meet the APBF entry deadlines!

We also considered holding the Open & Women’s in early March, but

• That would replace one clash (the NEC Cup in Japan) with another (the US Spring National in New Orleans). ABF policy for some years has been to avoid clashes between the Open Playoffs and the US Spring Nationals.
• And, create Australian scheduling difficulties around the Gold Coast Congress and Tasmanian Festival of Bridge.

As a result we believe the only viable option for next year would be to move the dates forward by 6 days, making the dates of the Open and Women’s playoffs:

Saturday 31 Jan – Thursday 5 Feb 2015

instead of

Friday 6 Feb – Wednesday 11 Feb 2015.

Players who have an interest in entering the 2015 Open or Women’s Playoffs are invited to tell us their preference by

sending an email to tournamentchair@abf.com.au

NOT LATER THAN FRIDAY 4^th APRIL

with the subject line “Playoff date preference”,

listing the players represented (who may include proposed partners or teammates) and expressing their preference on the following scale:

1 = strongly prefer Saturday 31 Jan – Thursday 5 Feb

2 = somewhat prefer Saturday 31 Jan – Thursday 5 Feb

3 = no preference for either date (like or dislike them both!)

4 = somewhat prefer Friday 6 Feb – Wednesday 11 Feb

5 = strongly prefer Friday 6 Feb – Wednesday 11 Feb

Note: This preference relates only to the 2015 playoff dates. The Tournament Committee is planning to do a full review of playoff dates and format for future years. This review will be done later in 2014.