Date problems: Incompatible with date-5.x-2.x but partially works with date-5.x-1.8

If you install competition with the required modules and with date-5.x-2.x, and then try to create a competition (node/add/competition) it is impossible to do so because the "period" "from date" is a required field, and there is no way to set it. (No date widget shows, just the text "from date".

If you install competition with date-5.x-1.8, you can create a competition even though the from date and to date of period still have no widget and cannot be set. In this case the "from date" does not seem to be required, so you can create the competition, but without being about to set the period. (It is not possible to enter the period by editing the competition, either).

Drupal 5.12
Relativity patched per instructions (5.x-2.4)
Versus 5.x-1.0-rc1
Content copy, node reference, user reference: 5.x-1.10
Views 5.x-1.6

Thanks,
-Randy