BRIGG REC: HOW MANY MEN'S FOOTBALL TEAMS CAN WE HOPE TO SEE NEXT SEASON?

Next season, how men's football teams will we see playing home games at the new £2.8-million Brigg Recreation Ground?
It has now been completely refurbished by North Lincolnshire Council, with an up-market changing room block, and a full-sized grass football pitch has been retained.
AFC Brigg have just completed their season in division one of the Paul Fox Scunthorpe & District Sunday League, playing home games at Scawby Playing Field.
Jolly Miller (Wrawby) have been competing in division four.
Other local sides include Broughton WMC (division one), Hibaldstow Wanderers (division two), Dog and Rat, Broughton (division three) and Broughton Lions (division five).
Pitches are available to use in Wrawby, Broughton and Hibaldstow.
In the TSW Printers Scunthorpe & District League, which is a Saturday competition, Brigg's only team, Briggensians, hosts games at Sir John Nelthorpe School, while Barnetby United Reserves play at the railway village's Silver Street ground.
Brigg Servicemen's Club and Dying Gladiator (Brigg), pictured below, no longer compete in the Sunday League, but did so until quite recently.
Giving the steady decline in the number of teams, and divisions, in the Scunthorpe Saturday and Sunday Leagues, and the fact that a number of villages/towns near Brigg have their own grounds, perhaps our best hope for Brigg Rec is that the refurbished facilities prompt the formation of one or more new teams/clubs which would use it in future seasons.
We shall never recapture how things were decades ago when Brigg Amateurs had three Saturday teams and there were so many Sunday sides using the Rec that both the men's pitches were fully utilised for morning and afternoon matches.
It's something of a paradox that when the changing rooms were very basic, Brigg had many local teams. But now the facilities are top-notch, we have very few.
Sadly, there is not the interest in playing team sports that there used to be. Particularly among those old enough to play what we will call men's football.
Cricket is in a similar position, although the hockey club is doing well.