ONGOING refurbishments at an upper Teesdale sports and social club are reaping benefits with demand for venue soaring.
Volunteers have continued to breathe new life into Middleton-in-Teesdale Sports and Social Club, which has seen a massive transformation over the past year and a half.
The sports bar has been revamped, the main hall made more appealing and now volunteers have transformed a little-used snug.
Due to lack of use, the room that featured a hand-painted mural of the upper dale had begun to smell a little musty.
Committee member Natalie Mitchell said: “The room only got used once or twice a month – now it’s all the time.
“We ripped the carpet out and everything that could have absorbed the musty smell. We’ve put in a new floor and had curtains made and basically cleaned everything as best we could.”
The volunteer team decorated from floor to ceiling, put in new curtains and have also installed a pool table.
She added: “We’re hopefully going to get a new television in here as well so we can screen the sports as well and we do have plans to put a pool team together for the league. It’s just a really popular place now.”
Since refurbishments at the club began, footfall to the venue has increased dramatically with more locals and visitors coming through the doors. Committee members are delighted with the reaction to some of the gigs that have been staged at the club, such a sell-out performance by a Blondie tribute band.
She said: “We have lots of plans to continue revamping but we’re doing when we can afford it.
“We did get an arts grant and we were able to replace the stage backdrop in the main hall. That was in place when we had what was probably our busiest night, the Blondie tribute band. We had about 200 people for that and we’ve got a few weddings coming up as well as christening since we started doing the work.
“It’s great that people are getting exciting again about the club.”
The committee has already lined up another tribute act – the Dolly Parton Experience.
Fellow committee member Ali Collinson said: “We’re trying to put on different events to appeal to everyone in the village as well as visitors to the caravan parks.
“We are looking at different events that appeal to a wide audience to keep people coming regularly to the club over the summer.”
New regular monthly events including bingo evenings and quiz nights dovetail into the committee’s plan to provide something for everyone. Ms Collinson added: “We’ve still got the monthly Country music evenings as well but we also now have people coming to the club who never normally did before.
“We’re hosting our first comedy night next month and it should be really good and we’ve kept the price really reasonable.”
Tickets for the evening on Saturday, July 1, which will feature Gainford-based comedian Jordan Lozman, along with five other comedians, cost £7.50. Book by visiting www.middleton-club.co.uk/events/
