Dear EBU member

Here's a bonus competitions newsletter for this month, just to tell you a few bits of news.

The Easter Festival, London: 19th - 22nd April 2019
A new venue, a new Championship Pairs schedule, and a price freeze!

Our usual venue for the Easter Festival - the Royal National at Russell Square - has been double booked for one day of the 2019 Easter weekend, so we have taken the opportunity to look for a new venue. We have found one which we think will be great so we will be moving the congress there in 2019.

We apologise for any inconvenience this change of venue may cause any of you who have already made bookings closer to Russell Squar, but we hope you can appreciate that is a good opportunity to move to a venue which appears to have many advantages.

ILEC Conference Centre

The congress in 2019 will be at the ILEC Conference Centre near Earls Court. It is just a short stroll from West Brompton station, which has both underground and national rail services.

It has an excellent playing room, and better 'break-out' areas for between sessions.

There is onsite accommodation (the Ibis London Earls Court), and unlike at the Royal National (or more specifically the nearby Imperial) the negotiated rates for bridge players include double and twin rooms as well as singles - giving couples, and those willing to share, a much cheaper option. The rates, per room, per night, are: 

• £89.00 Bed and Breakfast for single occupancy
• £99.00 Bed and Breakfast for double occupancy (double and twin rooms available)

Please book directly with the hotel using this online booking page. Prices, dates, etc are shown once you have created an account and/or signed-in. 

Early bookers pay 2018's lower entry fees!

As ILEC is a bit cheaper to hire than the Royal National we can make it a bit cheaper for you to play. As we are always very keen for you to book well in advance, so we can plan accordingly, we will charge the 2018 entry fees to those booking before the end of February. See the website for the updated price list.

New Championship Pairs format

In order to better accommodate the different start times which we offer on Good Friday, and to give you more bridge in the Championship Pairs, there has been a change to the format. Rather than playing longer sessions, you will now play five 18-board sessions across the two days - so you play 90 boards rather than 82 (in 2018) or 78 (in previous years) so get more for your entry fee. You can still choose whether to start early-afternoon (if you want the evening free), or mid-afternoon (if you have lunchtime commitments) and there will be no overlap between the different groups, thus improving 'security'.

Summer Festival
We're heading back to Eastbourne

We are confident that the renovations of the Devonshire Park complex in Eastbourne will be completed to a point where we will be able to hold the Summer Meeting in the refurbished buildings. This follows a site visit, and conversations with those involved - and we're pleased to say the new venue looks excellent. Some information on the renovations can be seen on the Conference Eastbourne website.

There may, of course, be unforeseen circumstances outside our control which mean that this is not possible - so please keep this in mind when making any travel or accommodation reservations - however we are proceeding on the basis that the event will be at this venue in 2019.

It will be held 2nd - 11th August (again, dependent on everything progressing as expected).

Further details on the congress will be posted on the website when finalised.

Masters and Ranked Masters Pairs
Changes of format

Masters Pairs: Sunday 24th February

In 2019 the Masters Pairs (for players below the rank of Regional Master) will be run as heats organised by local bridge clubs, rather than taking place at venues rented by the EBU. This follows the success of a similar format for the midweek competitions during the Summer Festival. The entry fee for each heat will be set by the host club - and they will retain part of this, meaning that your participation helps to support the club - and as they have lower overheads it is therefore likely to be a fair amount cheaper to take part than in the past. We hope that this will lead to an increased entry, and a better competition all round. 

We are in the process of contacting potential host clubs, but if your club would be interested in hosting a heat then please get in touch (comps@ebu.co.uk) and we will provide information on how the event will be run.

We will announce the clubs which will be hosting heats, and how to enter with them, once we start to have some confirmed venues.

Ranked Masters Pairs: Saturday 23rd - Sunday 24th February, Peterborough

In a change for the Ranked Masters Pairs in 2019, for the purpose of the movements we will merge the Premier Life Masters with the Life Masters, and the National Masters with the Regional Masters. We will still have ranking lists for each group, and award trophies, prizes and Master Points within those groups, but you will be playing in a larger field with more opponents and comparisons, which we hope will be welcomed by most players.

Also please note a change of venue for this event - Peterborough, not Daventry as previously published

Year End Congress, London
Correction

We're sorry for the error in the last Event Focus in which the dates of the Year End Congress didn't align with the listed days of week, and we apologise for any confusion. As you hopefully realised, the Congress is always 27th - 30th December, and it was the days which were wrong. So to clarify:

Thurs 27th - Fri 28th: Stratified Swiss Pairs
Fri 28th: Jack High Swiss Pairs
Sat 29th: Mixed or Open Pairs
Sun 30th: Stratified Swiss Teams

As always, if you have any queries about any of the events featured here then please don't hesitate to contact the Competitions Department on 01296 317203/219 or at comps@ebu.co.uk. Entries can be made by calling this number, or through My EBU, the members area of the website - www.ebu.co.uk/members.