BRIGG HOCKEY LONG AGO

The autumnal weather today would have been ideal for playing hockey on the old grass pitches at Brigg Recreation Ground - something that's now just a memory, as all the local club's games are played "away" on floodlit, artificial pitches - until the long-awaited redevelopment of The Rec takes place.
As the cricket season began to wind down, decades ago, Brigg Men's Hockey Club members eagerly awaited the arrival, in the post, of an envelope containing the green-covered fixture card for the new season.
In the 1980s the fixtures - certainly for the lower teams - were all friendlies. As time wore on, league matches took over, bit by bit, until all 5 XIs were playing for points.
Friendly opponents were usually played on the same Saturday each year. So Brigg would open, in September, against Nottingham teams like West Bridgeford and Notts Gregory.
We played them at home one year and then visited them the following season.
There were derby matches against Normanby Park, Lincoln and Roses (Gainsborough) - always keenly contested.
Grantham away, despite being in Lincolnshire, proved a lengthy drive, as did trips to Woodhall Spa, Horncastle and Alford.
There were Sunday friendlies against the likes of Appleby-Frodingham (Scunthorpe), Adel (Leeds) and Acomb (York).
After Sunday home games we retired to Brigg Town Football Club to consume crates of light ale.
Dear old Lenny Marshall, who umpired in a style all of his own, borrowed a phrase from another winter sport. What went on after the game had finished was apres hockey in Len's lingo, rather than apres ski.