While we have not yet received our official sanctions, the District NAP Committee navigated a very packed October and November schedule to plan suitable dates for the District NAP finals held about 6 months from now. We also have major changes planned, some at the national level and others specific to New York City and Long Island. Our goal is to keep what worked last year, embrace the new NAP changes, and experiment with a new split-site format for our Flight B players.
Open Flight: Sunday, Oct 5th, 10am at Honors
Flight A: Sunday, Nov 2nd, 10am at Honors
Flight B: Sunday, Oct 26th, 11am at both BRIDGExpress and Honors
Flight C: Sunday, Nov 2nd, 10am at Honors
Four NAP Flights This Year
The big change this year is the 4th flight. To mirror GNT flights, players with 0-6000 Masterpoints will play in Flight A, while the old Flight A will now be called the Open or Championship Flight. All flights send the top 3 pairs to the NABCs to represent the District, as opposed to the old method of Open Flight sending 3 pairs and Flights B and C sending 4 each. Do the math and it really means we are sending 12 pairs, up from 11 pairs, with many more pairs coming from the Mid-Flight and post Mid-Flight range (750-6000).
Split-Site Flight B
We recognize that our District has a unique problem: even though we are geographically quite small, moving the hosting location by 10 miles can mean adding an hour or more to the commute. While navigating tunnels, rivers, and train lines is part of the NY experience, it’s not ideal for tournament attendance.
For the first time in District 24 history, we will try a Great Neck and Manhattan split-site District Flight B. Players are welcome to pick whichever playing site is most convenient. We understand there are plenty of 0-3000 players in both Units who would be happy to play as long as the commute is convenient. This is one of the larger and highly impactful experiments we will be trying, aiming to continue the great success of 18 tables in NAP B last year. The plan is to have an ACBL approved NAP director at each site and a director-in-charge absorbing the chaos.
New 10am Start Time for Open and Flight A
For as long as any of us can remember, the GNT and NAP start times have been 11am. We always heard vague explanations that the later time helps the people commuting from Long Island, or that maybe the hosting clubs or directors need the extra time. However, it seems everyone prefers the event end earlier — players, director, and club. Therefore, we are moving the event to begin at 10am, just like every other major two-session bridge event in ACBL. That should also mean a more reasonable lunch time with everyone finishing before 6pm.
Note the Split-Site Flight B on October 26th still begins at 11am as it is the most convenient for our hosting clubs.
Same Masterpoint Cutoffs as GNT
This year the Masterpoint cutoffs are identical to GNTs. Open is unlimiteed, A is 0-6000, B is 0-3000, and C is NLM 0-750. However, you still need to do NAP club qualifiers during June, July, and August as usual. Various clubs in D24 will announce their club qualfiier dates, or you can try to qualify with an online club game. Also, for folks right on the borderline between two flights, the NAP cutoff for Masterpoint qualification is based on your June Bridge Bulletin each year while GNT is the September Bridge Bulletin.
