Grand National Teams
WIN GOLD POINTS !!
Come win those hard-to-get Gold points on Saturday, March 3rd, by competing in the Grand National Teams Unit Qualifying event at the Village Card Club, in Hot Springs Village.
There will be 3 strata(all masterpoints as of 9-1-2011)
C Strata: 0-500 NLM
B Strata: 0-2000
A Strata: 0-5000
On March 3rd, we will have a 2-session event starting at 9:00 am. Cost will be $80 per team. The VCC will provide snacks, beverages and a free lunch served between sessions.
* RESERVATIONS by MARCH 1st * Contact: Teri LaBove @ 501 915 9101
60% of all teams in EACH strata will qualify for the District 10 Qualifying event, to be held in Tupelo, Ms. April 27-29, 2012. All teams that qualify in Unit and compete in Tupelo will be paid $200 by the Unit 161. If your team wins your strata in Tupelo, the District will pay each player a minimum of $350 to compete in the Nationals in Philadelphia this summer. Get your team together by March 1st, so you can have fun and win GOLD !!
Click Here to view the flyer.
2011 Masterpoint Races
Tournament Partnership Requests
A partnership page has been added to the Unit 161 site. The purpose of the page is to assist players at Unit 161 sponsored tournaments. Please see the links at the top of the page. Partnerships will access the new page. Tournaments provides information on Unit 161 tournaments.
The Partnership page provides a place for you to post your partnership request for upcoming tournaments. After your request has been filled, please return to the page and delete your request. You will be asked for a password to insure that only yourself can delete the request.
Unit Team Championship
The Unit Board has decided to move the Unit Team Championship out of the DeGray tournament starting in 2011. In addition there are timing changes that you need to be aware of. The Unit Team Championship will take place on one of the first two Saturday's in October, rotating between Hot Springs Village and Little Rock. Since the NAP Unit Championship is typically an October event hosted by LR or HSV then the host of the Unit Team Championship will be the club NOT hosting the NAP that year. Therefore, LR will host in 2011-13, 15, etc. and HSV 2012-14-16 etc. There will be two rounds of play. To encourage lower strata involvement and enthusiasm, we will use the 3-2-1 point spread whereby each team can have no more than 8 points spread as follows: A=2000+ MP = 3 points, B=500-<2000 MP = 2 points, and C=0-<500 MP = 1 point. Each team is limited to only one A player. Individuals' total number of masterpoints is determined as of April 1. Club qualifications must be held before August 30. If 1-6 teams participate in qualification, one team will compete in the Unit team Championship; if 7-12 teams participate in qualification, then two teams will compete; with more than 12 teams participating, three teams will compete.
Little Rock will host the Unit team Championship on Saturday October 1, 2011. The start time is 9:30 and the fee is $6.00 per person, and lunch is not provided – bring your own if you wish.
North American Pairs (NAP)
North American Pairs (NAP) - Conditions of Contest
The NAP club level qualifying takes place in June, July & August.
Unit Finals:
The NAP BC Unit finals are on Saturday, October 29, hosted by Hot Springs Village. - flyer
Hot Springs Village Morning Results
Hot Springs Village Afternoon Results
Flight A will not have a separate unit final; they may play in the unit final per unit guidelines. NAP B/C Unit Finals will be flighted whereby Flight A pairs and flight B pairs will play together. The EW and NS A pairs will be as evenly divided as possible. (This format actually HELPS flight B players to earn more points and DOES NOT IMPACT the number of flight B teams that qualify for the District level competition.) Flight C will play by themselves, i.e. flighted instead of stratified, instead of with flight B and flight A, even though this means a reduction in masterpoints available by 20% and a reduction in 50% in gold points. The rationale for this is that that unit board believes that flight C participants would prefer not to play against flight A players in this event even if it costs them possible master points. NOTICE - As a special incentive to compete, Unit 161 is awarding a stipend of $100 to each B and C pair that qualifies in the Unit Round and then also competes in the District Level competition.
As usual, because of the large geographic area that the unit covers, the Jonesboro qualifying site will; hold their game on October 22 at 10:00 am. Due to the lower attendance at the Unit NAP final in Jonesboro, Flight C will be separate as long as the separation into two flights does not cause either to be below 5 tables.
District Finals:
District BC finals will be in January 2012 in Jackson, MS - January 14 - 15. The flight A District final will be at the Tunica Regional on Sunday September 18. At the District level, in Districts with four qualifiers, the 1st place qualifiers will receive $700 per person and the 2nd place qualifiers will receive $300 per person. Even if you do not win at the District level you may still win the stipends to attend the Nationals. In the past few years some of the top qualifiers at the District level have not been able to attend the Nationals so the next pair automatically moves up.
Flights for this exciting event are determined by masterpoints as of 2011 June cycle. ( The June masterpoint cycle is run by ACBL data processing in May 2011. Any points won but not included in this cycle do not affect masterpoint eligibility.) Why is it exciting? Because there are 4 levels to this event, club-unit-district-national, the masterpoint awards are quite large compared to other events you might play in, especially for flight BC palyers.
District Finals Results, Flight A
District Finals Results, Flight B & C
C Level 0 - 500 AND must be a Non-Life Master
B Level 0-2000
A Level Open to all Levels
National Finals:
Spring 2012 NABC Memphis, Tennessee
Education Liaison
Attention Unit 161 clubs: The Education Liaison from the Unit 161 Board to your club for 2009 is Dick Heil. Please contact him at: Home Tel # 501-753-3097, Cell # 501-529-6404, E-mail heil@sbcglobal.net
The primary functions of the Educational Liaison are:
Promote Educational Programs throughout the Unit at the Unit and Club Level.
Administer the Unit’s Educational reimbursement policy, and to help coordinate with the District their Educational reimbursement policy.
Use the available resources of the ACBL to develop a cadre of accredited Bridge Teachers.
Develop and implement programs for the advancement and improvement of teaching techniques.
Assist Clubs in the development and implementation of New Player Development programs.