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A long time ago, in 1976 to be exact, a group of keen locals started playing bridge in the St Andrews Church Hall. Rosemary Stevenson was elected the first President of the Cambridge Contract Bridge Club.

This group later shifted premises to the Cambridge Trotting complex. As membership grew the need for club rooms was paramount and the members worked hard to raise the necessary funds with debentures, and many fundraising activities the original clubrooms were built on the current site in 1982.

It was with some relief that the first computer was purchased in 1989 as up until its arrival the cards were taken home each night and counted manually. One wit signed many cards with TBWB. “This b.... won't balance!"

Another momentous decision was when smoking was banned from the clubrooms in 1993. Apparently a few members were so upset by this decision that they resigned.

In 1995 the clubrooms were extended to allow room for 22 tables, a computer room, separate Ladies and Gentleman toilet facilities and a large kitchen to cater for the successful tournaments that are held each year.

In 2002 we moved to the Compass scoring system which has worked very well ever since. The advent of our website in 2006 meant players no longer had to wait around after play for the scoring to be completed if they wished to find how they'd done. In 2010 we became the proud owners of our very own dealing machine. After some practice one operator can deal all four sets of boards required for a week's bridge in less than one hour. The dealing machine also allowed hand records and comparitive scores analysis to be posted to the website. Another technology upgrade followed in 2011 when the club bought the Bridgemate wireless scoring system with 20 table-top units. Suddenly results became available immediately the last table to finish entered their result. A huge advance on the TBWB days!!

The current 130-plus members of the club are proud of the rooms and grateful for the foresight and hard work of past members. We are a vibrant and healthy club growing stronger in general ability as evidenced by the numbers and successes of our members attending tournaments. Several of our members have achieved mention in the New Zealand Bridge monthly Ranks Report which lists the top ten players, male and female, by Rank in the country. See it at http://www.nzbridge.co.nz/Masterpoints/