BRIGG BLOG SAYS: GIVE US A BREAK

Brigg Blog has nothing against football - we've played plenty and watched plenty since the mid-1960s. And we still view a decent amount on TV or on the big screen in pubs like our own Britannia.
But wasn't sporting life better when we had a decent close season gap?
(That's with the exception of the 1966 World Cup, of course).
We've just had a Twitter message telling us that Scunthorpe United's first fixture of next season will be revealed on  June 16, when the draw for round one of the Capital One Cup takes place.
Didn't last season only finish at the weekend?
When, as kids, we used to play our matches, with coats for goalposts, on the rough grass between the Rec Ground wire-fenced boundary and South View Avenue we didn't switch from cricket to football until the second week of August.
This was the agreed date - a few days before the Football League season began.
Nationally, cricket is now struggling to get itself noticed by today's young generation.
Fewer and fewer schools have decent facilities or the resources to run cricket teams.
How lucky we were in the late 1960s and early 1970s to attend Brigg Grammar School, with its practice nets, wooden pavilion and top playing surface, tended by Stan Beedham.
There were house matches and age-group games against other schools until you became sufficiently senior  to seek a coveted place in the 2nd X1 or even the 1sts.
A crowd of 300+ turned out to watch the 2nd X1 v Staff match on the final Wednesday of the school year,  in July. It was compulsory for every pupil to attend.
That would be a decent turn-out for a midweek County Championship fixture these days.