LANSING WAS... LONELY?

The Lansing Regional was held August 10-14 at Royal Scot Golf Course (and humungous bowling alley) near the Lansing airport. It was well run, the facility is fine and access is generally easy. But it wasn't as large as last year and that worrying trend continues in a lot of places. It's the nearest Regional Tournament to Northwest Michigan, but the total representation from our part of the world was ONE team-of-four combining ACBC and Traverse City regulars. Since Gold and Red masterpoints are awarded at Regional and National events (though a few can be earned at special F2F or online events), most players who aren't Life Masters already apparently aren't interested in achieving that rank... or simply can't/won't travel very far to do it!

PETOSKEY TERRIFIC AGAIN

The bottom line? Petoskey runs a damn fine bridge tournament! They have a wonderful "bridge house" and lots of experience, going back to the late (lamented) pre-pandemic Regional, plus dozens of Sectionals (open and limited). Unfortunately, the F2F bridge population has dwindled dramatically. Northern Michigan has only two tournaments each year: Petoskey in June and The Paul Christ Memorial Sectional (also well-run) in September.

As a bridge club. ACBC simply doesn't have the resources to organize and execute a tournament. We debated it among club "management" a couple of years ago. Nothing since then has convinced us we were wrong not to go ahead.

So our job as a club is to SUPPORT THE TWO EXISTING TOURNAMENTS with all our (mini) might. This we do pretty well. For at least one session of the just-completed weekend, at least 16 ACBC regular players played. Some played A LOT. Most won at least a few "bits of silver" and as far as I can determine were considered to be model bridge ambassadors. Good job, ACBC! Make plans for the Traverse City Sectional the week after Labor Day. And you really should try to attend mid-Michigan's only Regional in Lansing mid-August. Gold points! Red points! It's the most fun you can have in a bowling alley!

GOOD News

CORRECTION (1-4-2026): Our highest table count prior to the pandemic was 545.5 in 2017. In 2019 we registered 527 tables. We finished 2025 with 551.5 tables, still higher than our best pre-COVID year. The downward trend is real and continues.

The trend is disappointing, but ACBC ends 2025 as the third consecutive year when our table count met or exceeded 2019, the last full year before COVID destroyed face-to-face (F2F) bridge and just about everything else.

Most clubs haven't recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Most probably never will. Our F2F counts are still smaller than 2019, but the ACBC online game directed by Mike Kiwak adds enough tables to keep our numbers relatively healthy. The online game and our small seasonal 199er game offset the loss of our evening Thursday F2F game.

The good news hides an ugly reality. Our highest table count was 2023 and it has slipped each year. 2025 is BARELY larger than 2019. Unless we recruit more new players whose devotion to the club compares to the players we are losing through normal attrition, we will join just about every other F2F club in looking like a pale echo of our pre-COVID selves.

We actually already have fewer players than when Nancy DeWeese turned the club over to the current board, but the members we do have are remarkably active and loyal. Our largest Summer games used to have 12 or even 13 tables. Last year our largest games were only 9 1/2 tables.