Our Early Years

The precursor to our current bridge club was the Legion Contract Players, formed in 1985 by Peter Shaw.  The club was not ACBL sanctioned and played their games in Coldwater. 

• In 1988, the club moved to the Midland Civic Centre with Frances Kevan serving as our first President.  Our first Constitution was written by John Dowling.
• The same year, Ross Hawkins, Frances Kevan, and Henry DeLange applied for and received a grant from the New Horizons Programme to purchase bridge tables and chairs, cards, boards, etc. 
• Ross Hawkins was instrumental in getting our club ACBL sanctioned. 
• Bidding boxes were introduced and members played Qualifying Rounds for the North American Open Teams in October of 1988.
• In 1990, our club moved to the Recreation Centre on Yonge Street (now the Court House), followed by a move to the new YMCA when it was built.
• In 1997, the games were held at St. Paul’s United Church on King Street and were played there until 2002 when we moved to St. Margaret’s Catholic Church on Hugel Avenue. 
• Over the years, many of our members have organized and given bridge lessons to the public in hopes of improving our bridge game and encouraging new players to join our club. 
• In recent years, we have added a web presence for our club, upgraded our computer, and purchased scoring machines and a dealing machine.  

The Present

In 2015, we approached the Town of Midland to lease our current home, 427 William Street. 

• This facility had previously been leased by the Huronia Community Players for their theatrical productions and required significant modifications. 
• This required many volunteer hours and a significant budget.  
• We have raised money by donations from our members, our Boston Pizza nights and the lessons which are currently being given by Greg Coles, our Club Manager.
• Fund raising will continue for the near future as our ‘wouldn’t it be nice’ list continues to grow (pretty typical of all renovation projects I suspect).
• We have had great support from our members with their volunteer hours, skills and dollars.  The Town of Midland has also eased the transition to our new home.
• We are very proud of what our Midland Bridge Club has achieved with regards to this endeavor and are looking forward to many years of friendly competitive bridge in this clubhouse.