Friday, September 18, 2015

GOLDEN MEMORIES OF BRIGG SUPPERS' CORNER

We've just popped into Brigg town centre for a newspaper on a lovely late summer morning. 
Someone was clearly feeling the heat already. By 10am he had taken his decent, and reasonably priced, pint of real ale outside J.D. Wetherspoon's White Horse, where we noted another thirsty customer emerging with a coffee.
We like a pint, but this is a bit early  for us. Indeed,  drinking alcohol during the day in Brigg is now just a memory. Is this an age thing?
We used to love spending Thursday afternoons in the old Queen's Arms, which so many interesting characters used to frequent after they had toured the town centre, on market day, to do their shopping. Some of them had been using the Queen's for this purpose for 30/40 years - and we are talking about the 1980s!
Then working in the Scunthorpe Telegraph's sports department, we used to take time off in lieu on Thursdays to make up for weekend working, which included visiting Bob Taylor's home in Wrawby, early on Sunday, to pick up his hand-written Brigg Town FC match reports for use in Monday's paper.
Spring and summer Sundays would often see us journey to cricket grounds as far afield as Cumberland, Suffolk and Cheshire to report on Lincolnshire Minor Counties matches or at Quibell Park, Scunthorpe, covering Scunthorpe Steelers' American football fixtures.
Sunday night always produced some good story tip-offs when we visited Brigg  Servicemen's Club for a few pints in what they called Suppers' Corner. Sadly, many of those who attended are no longer with us.   The topics of conservation generally related to sport, particularly football, and dear old Brigg Amateurs FC.  
We took it in turns to visit the bar and bring back a tray of drinks, punctuated, from time to time, by the Crisp Round, which helped soak up the ale. Some people later visited the chippie down Grammar School Road, but it was not on our walking route home.
When we make now-too-rare visits to Brigg SMC, where we've kept up our membership, it's always a reminder of happy Sunday nights in Suppers' Corner and we raise a glass in memory of those who have since passed away, Jack Dunderdale being the latest.



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