BRIGG SPORTSMAN HONOURED AS HE BEGINS HIS 50TH PLAYING 50TH SEASON

One of Brigg's best-known sportsmen was honoured at the weekend.
Solicitor Steve Baggott - a stalwart of the town's hockey club - was honoured as he started his 50th season as a player.
Steve - a former pupil of Brigg Grammar School - described it as an amazing day.
He arrived to play for Brigg only to discover the club had secretly made it a commemorative match in his honour.
Steve was presented with a tankard to mark the occasion and later enjoyed a drink or two and a curry with the team.
He took to Facebook to thank everyone involved and admitted to feeling humbled by the day's events.
Steve has also been a club official and done his share of umpiring.
We played alongside each other several hundred times for Brigg Hockey Club.
He always set a fine example - on and off the field.
His usual position was left-winger - perhaps the hardest to fill with the exception of goalkeeper - and he has managed quite few goals in his time, particularly penalty flicks.
We enjoyed some good times - on and off the field -  when winning wasn't everything. Even after we joined the lower reaches of the Yorkshire League.
What we looked forward to was the fun of travelling 70-plus miles to get heavily defeated at Ben Rhydding, within sight of Ilkley Moor (of Bar T'At fame) when it was snowing sideways.
Or taking on the inmates at a jail near Doncaster, where we had to be thoroughly searched before, and after the game. (Strangely this team was only allowed to play home matches!).
Back at the Queen's Arms, or later the White Hart, we would hold a debrief, and a few pints of refreshment, and swap stories of the day's hardly-epic match with members of the other Brigg teams.
We were generally in the 4ths or 5ths (depending on how many teams Brigg were running at the time). On one famous occasion, Brigg even managed to field six teams on the same Saturday.
We bumped into Steve on Wrawby Street a few weeks ago, on a sunny Saturday afternoon, and he told us his milestone 50th season was about to start.
Like many Brigg hockey players, past and present, we raise a glass to his achievement.

PICTURED: Steve enjoying a pint at one of Brigg District Lions' beer festivals.