WILL SATURDAY'S MATCH BE THE BEST-ATTENDED IN BRIGG THIS YEAR?

Although 2019 has only just started, we think a Brigg sporting event coming up this weekend may prove to be the best attended of the year in terms of spectator numbers.
This is because Brigg Town Football Club has a county cup derby coming up against a team from Scunthorpe.
The Zebras will be hosting Appleby-Frodingham in the fourth round of the Lincolnshire Junior Cup at The Hawthorns on Saturday, January 5. Kick off is 1.30pm.
Brigg play in the Balcan Lincolnshire League Premier, while the Steelmen operate in the Abacus Lighting Central Midlands League.
We undestand that's not a great divide in terms of the FA pyramid.
Brigg Town FC currently top the attendance table in the Lincolnshire League with a healthy home game average of 110, and Appleby-Frodingham have also seen some good-sized attendances at the Brumby Hall ground.
What links are there between these two well-established North Lincolnshire teams?
Ralph 'Raz' Clayton managed Appleby-Frodingham with great success in the 1970s and 1980s and did likewise with Brigg Town in different spells, including leading the Zebras to victory in the FA Vase during two very memorable seasons - the finals being played in London.
Our picture above, from the 1970s, shows Raz with the Brigg Town team during a friendly/benefit match against a Hull City XI at The Hawthorns.
In the Brigg side that day was Grimsby Town goalscoring legend Matt Tees (third from right on the back row). Matt, who played for the Mariners in two spells during the 1960s and early 1970s, was renowned for spectacular headed goals.
Raz appears to be shielding his face from strong early evening summer sun.
Matt Tees is next to Joe Stallard (wearing the jacket) who was a local physio/trainer of some renown.
Defender Barry 'Big Baz' Martin is third from left on the front row, next to forward Charlie Maycock.
We think the keeper is Jim Lavery, who also played for Scunthorpe United.
The other pictures below were taken at the same game, which attracted a good-sized crowd to The Hawthorns - Matt being the big draw.
One affords a good, if distant, view of the original Recreation Ground when wooden huts still formed part of the changing accommodation for local football teams.
Colour football pictures taken locally were something of a rarity in the 1970s, and few survive to this day.
Brigg-based Lincolnshire Times photographer Bryan Robins can be seen - camera in hand - on one of them. But there would have been black and white film in his camera.
Seeing the changing room sheds will bring back many memories for local footballers of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
Washing facilities came courtesy of a nearby tap!
The colour pictures reproduced here were taken by keen amateur photographer Ken Fisher who served with Bryan on Brigg Urban Distict Council and later Brigg Town Council.
Lincolnshire book author Paul King kindly scanned them over the Christmas period from Ken's original slides - still in their cardboard frames.
They were among a batch of railway images we posted to Paul from the Ken Fisher Collection.
Brigg Blog has the facility to scan old prints but not transparencies.
Bryan Robins, when he lived on Albert Street, was the president of Brigg Town FC for many years in the era when Harry Williams, of Grammar School Road, was the legendary and very long-serving chairman.
While a sports reporter with the Scunthorpe Telegraph in the 1980s, Brigg Blog covered many Appleby-Frodingham home games at Brumby Hall when Raz managed the steelworks team and Scawby's Gerry Spencer was the club secretary.
Among App-Frod's notable strikers was Peter Wainwright, who grew up in Scawby Brook and attended Brigg Grammar School.
He went on to play for Grimsby Town in the 1980s when former Scunthorpe United forward George Kerr managed The Mariners.
Locally, Peter banged in the goals for Brigg teams Ancholme Wanderers and White Horse, and was among those who attended the latter club's first ex-player reunion a few years ago at the town centre pub now operated by Wetherspoon's.
We seem to recall that current Brigg residents Martin North and John Taylor also played for Appleby-Frodingham FC - both working within the steel industry.