BRIGG HOCKEY THRIVING YEARS AFTER WE WERE PUT US OUT TO GRASS

It was really heartening to see THREE Brigg hockey matches played at the Recreation Ground on Saturday (October 5).
We arrived in time to watch some of the afternoon action in a ladies' game and two men's fixtures.
Staggered starts are employed on North Lincolnshire Council's all-weather, floodlit 'Blue Astro' pitch.

It's 15 years since we were put out to grass and last swung a stick for Brigg but a number of our former team-mates were in action, or spectating, on Saturday.
The all-weather pitch only arrived at The Rec in 2017 - prior to which Brigg teams hired venues in Scunthorpe and Lincoln.
It must be 18-20 years since the final grass hockey matches were played at Brigg Rec - by the lowest-ranking team, the 5th XI, in the Yorkshire League.
This took place on what was known as The Front Pitch, adjoining Wrawby Road.
While parking the car on Saturday afternoon we couldn't resist taking a picture of the old pitch, long since converted to junior football.



We were something of a hockey dinosaur, believing there was nothing to beat a match on grass in Brigg, starting at 3 o'clock, so you could be in the bar at the Hawthorns or the Queen's Arms in quick time.
Almost everyone else in the club wanted to play on synthetic pitches - rightly regarded as the way forward for the sport and a must for young up-and-coming players.
However, a 'home' game at Quibell Park in Scunthorpe or at Yarborough School in Lincoln brought considerable travelling time into play and added expense.
Surely Brigg hockey club ought to be playing in the town, not elsewhere!
A campaign launched in the mid-1980s to get a synthetic, floodlit pitch in Brigg took a long, long time to achieve its objective.
Brigg Rec, Sir John Nelthorpe School and even the former Brigg Sugar Factory sportsground were suggested as possible locations.
But thanks to North Lincolnshire Council, Brigg got there in the end and now has a superb pitch and changing rooms to introduce to visiting teams from Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
Brigg has four men's and three ladies' teams playing during the 2019/20...but not, of course, on grass!

These pictures feature action from two of the matches played on Saturday afternoon, with Brigg in the green shirts.

The former grass Front Hockey Pitch at Brigg Recreation Ground, now used for youth football. This view, taken from what's now a car parking area beside the tennis courts, looks towards Wrawby Road.