Brigg Blog was very sorry to hear of the deaths of three well-known former local sportsmen we knew well, as did many other people in this area.
Peter Thompson and Steve Bailey played cricket for the Brigg Town Club, while Mick Stothard was a long-serving Broughton cricketer as well as appearing for Brigg Town Football Club.
All three contributed to sport as umpires once their playing days were over.
Peter Thompson was educated at Brigg Grammar School and later became a secondary school teacher in the town, latterly at the Vale of Ancholme.
Having moved to live in Caistor, he switched careers to journalism, creating a rural news agency which provided pictures and reports for the Market Rasen Mail, the Grimsby Evening Telegraph, the Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph and other publications.
One of his roles included reporting on horse-racing meetings held at the Market Rasen course.
As well as having close links with St John's Church, Brigg, he was well-known as an official of the Scouts and as publicity officer for Elsham Golf Club.
But he will be best remembered in Brigg sporting circles for his legion service to our Hockey Club as player, coach and chairman, encouraging many people to take up the sport and then develop their talents.
He also became a league umpire and chaired the Yorkshire Hockey League.
As well as Brigg Town, Peter also played cricket for Barnetby when it had a team and for Brocklesby Park.
Mike Campion, a former Town Mayor of Brigg who has given decades of service to Scunthorpe's Appleby-Frodingham Cricket Club, rang Brigg Blog to say Peter Thompson was a true gentleman who worked hard to publicise cricket and also many groups and organisations in Brigg through his work for the local press.
Steve Bailey started playing cricket for Brigg Town as a medium-pace bowler in the late 1980s and went on to captain the second team during the following decade.
After retiring from playing, he qualified as an umpire and officiated in matches across North Lincolnshire, including many in the county competition's premier division.
While with Brigg Town he set a divisional record in the league which was never beaten by taking eight wickets for only five runs in a home game played at Sir John Nelthorpe School against a team from the Grimsby area.
Funeral services for Peter and Steve will be held in the near future.
Mick Stothard's took place recently. He played football for Brigg Town FC in the 1960s and later for Ancholme Wanderers in the Scunthorpe Sunday League - this team being based at the Ancholme Inn, on Grammar School Road.
Mick was in the Brigg Town line-up which played a team from Sheffield in a special Football Association game at The Hawthorns to mark the local club's 100th anniversary during the 1964/65 season.
He was also a fine all-round cricketer with the Broughton club until about 20 years ago before switching immediately to umpiring, doing so at the highest level locally.
PICTURED: Top left - Peter Thompson in the mid-1990s; top right - Steve Bailey during the same period; lower right - Mick Stothard when he played for Brigg Town Football Club in its centenary match in 1964/65.