SCHOOL LEGEND MOURNED BY BRIGG

Well over 1,000 people have already joined a special website forum in memory of much-loved and respected Brigg teacher John Allcock...and more are doing so all the time.
John, who lived in Brigg for many years, died on March 15, aged 62, after a long battle with cancer. A funeral service will be held at 12.30 on Wednesday (March 24) at St John's Church, Bigby Street, Brigg. It will be followed by committal at Woodlands, Scunthorpe.
John was educated at Brigg Grammar School and returned there after university to teach physics, continuing at Sir John Nelthorpe School after comprehensive education was introduced in 1976. He became one of the longest-serving and most respected members of staff, giving so much more to the school than just being a super teacher of his specialist subject. He was involved with many other things, including timetabling and running the school cricket team in the Broughton and District Evening League. He was also a good football goalkeeper in his younger days and was a keen supporter of Tuesday quiz nights at Brigg's Britannia Inn.
Some 100 guests at Saturday night's Briggensians' Association annual dinner for former pupils and staff stood in silence in memory of John, to whom several tributes were later paid.
The Facebook social networking site r.i.p Mr Allcock, created by Liam Mcintyre, describes John as a legend. "You were a great man who will be dearly missed and never forgotten," it says.
Many ex-pupils from the early 1970s to recent times have posted comments, and here's a selection:
Bill Eaton: "Great teacher, keen sportsman, good man...big loss."
Helen Sharp: "A legendary teacher and a lovely man - every school should have been blessed with a Mr Allcock. Thoughts are with family and friends at this sad time."
Rich Golland: "Allcock - legend."
Lynsey Bates: "Mr Allcock somehow managed to make one of my least favourite subjects enjoyable and fun. A great teacher."
Matt Courts: "Nelthorpe has lost one of its truly great teachers and we have all lost a very kind, caring individual."
Matt Mosey: "You were my teacher, my colleague and my friend. In typical Allcock style you were fantastic at all three."
NF adds: "I was in one of the first school years to be taught physics by John at Brigg Grammar. But many of us got to know him particularly well on the football and cricket field. He played a bit of club cricket for Brigg Town and was a stalwart player and organiser with the Nelthorpe team in the local midweek league over many years. John had a fine sense of humour - often at his own expense. In games at BGS we used to take advantage of his lack of height in goal by chipping the ball over his head - an achievement always greeted with a smile on his face and a laugh. Later, when I worked part-time at Brigg Sixth Form College, and became a Parent Governor, John was always someone you looked forward to meeting in the corridor, classroom,staff room, or socially in Brigg."
There will be a huge turnout for John's funeral on Wednesday. So if you are going, and particularly if you plan to take the car - get there early.