What a start to 2022! Let's hope the worst will soon be over and we can all manage a little more forward planning in our bridge life. Some Congresses have been affected by the Omicron wave and have been moved online. The long awaited Gold Coast Congress will be the first face-to-face National Congress this year, running from 18th - 26th February 2022. 

Back to state matters: New South Wales started the process for selection of Interstate Teams in January. The 2nd stage of the Open Interstate Team Selection (OITS) will be held over 3 Mondays from 28th February to 14th March. If you would like to get a taste of the Monday Night Championships, the ITS Swiss Pairs will be held alongside the OITS stage II and is open to all players. The Women's Team was selected at the end of January, congratulations to:

The McCutcheon awards were announced in early January. These recognise the "Player of the Year" in each masterpoint ranking category i.e. the player who amassed the highest number of Australian masterpoints within a calendar year.

Congratulations to the 2021 overall winner David Weston who earned the most masterpoints of all ABF-registered players in 2021, with 310.97 masterpoints. He was followed by Tony Nunn (306.03) and Kim Morrison (298.6) in 2nd and 3rd places.

Congratulations also to Jake Andrew who was the Most Improved Player of 2021, earning 138.05 masterpoints (Jake only had 42.96 masterpoints at the beginning of last year!)

The full national masterpoints report is available at the ABF Masterpoints Centre. This year has only just begun, it's not too late to start playing in *congresses!

*All masterpoints are counted, but playing in congresses usually gives you a higher chance to earn more. 
 

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to partner with a professional and learn by playing with them? Here comes the opportunity - the PRO-AM Bridge Tournament organised by the ABF, in which you bid in an auction for your favourite leading player(s)! All the monies will go to the ABF Foundation for the long-term benefit of the bridge community. This concept of a "Bridge Future Fund" is supported by the expert players who have donated their time for the PRO-AM Tournament. Enter. Enter the auction today!

The aims of the ABF Foundation range from encouraging young people to learn the game through to supporting and expanding bridge activities amongst our seniors. You can also support the ABF Foundation through a gift or bequest in your will, or via a donation.

The NSWBA Tournament Calendar now allows you to filter the list of congresses so that you can see which are face-to-face and which are online - the online congresses can be filtered by platform.