WHICH IS THE OLDEST SPORTS CLUB IN BRIGG?

It's long been thought that Brigg Town Football Club and Ancholme Rowing Club - both founded in the 1860s - are the oldest sports clubs in the town.
Certainly, they are the most long-established in terms of continuous presence.
But cricket in Brigg, we are now told, goes back at least as far as 1824.
Broughton sportsman and archivist, Neil Simpson, told us there was a Scawby & Brigg Cricket Club playing in 1826.
Then former Brigg Town batsman Lee Fielden, from Barnetby,  emailed us with number of fascinating cricket scorecards and reports featuring Brigg matches and meetings in 1824, 1844, 1847, 1860, 1862, 1870 and 1898.
He has also supplied end-of-season batting and bowling averages from the 1909 season.
In 1824 there was a match in Scawby Park between Louth and the Scawby and Brigg cricket clubs (plural).
Families from Brigg and district went to watch "and a handsome cold collation was provided for them and the players to which Sir Henry Nelthorpe, with his usual liberality, greatly contributed by presenting the club with an abundance of the choicest of his fruit."


In 1844, the Gentlemen or the Louth and Scawby & Brigg Cricket Club enjoyed a "well-played game."
However, the newspaper report Lee has unearthed says the local team was selected from the clubs of Brigg AND Scawby.

Pitches then were not on a par with what teams enjoy today.
Due to the low scores, it was common for games to be played over two innings.
Further evidence that Brigg had a cricket club of its own comes in a report from 1847 when "members of the Grimsby and the Brigg cricket clubs met in Mr Squires' field to play a match."
Afterwards, the Brigg players celebrated their with an excellent dinner party hosted by Mr Squires and paid for "at the cost of the defeated party."
Another report Lee has found  from 1860 said Brigg Cricket Club was "now in a vigorous condition" with several new members.
So Brigg did have a cricket club before Brigg Town Football Club was formed in 1864 and the Rowing Club four years later.
However, it has not operated continuously, as there was a gap from 1939/40 through to 1973/4 when the current Brigg Town Cricket Club was formed.
Brigg Town FC and Ancholme Rowing Club have been going continuously since their formation.
So the honour of being 'the oldest sports club' is a question of definition.
Make your own mind up.