BRIGG TOWN WILL PLAY IN NEWLY-FORMED DIVISION

Brigg Town Cricket Club players and those appearing for Broughton 2nds will have their travelling time and costs reduced in the new season, running from April to September 2022.
The Lincolnshire County Cricket League has now divided its previously very large Division Three into Division Three East and Division Three West. This has been made possible by the election of some newcomers, including Brocklesby Park.
Brigg and Broughton 2nds will now play in Division Three West which involves teams from the Scunthorpe area and the Isle of Axholme, plus Caistor 2nds.
So Brigg and Broughton 2nds will no longer face lengthy league trips south to Alford, Louth and other clubs which are now in Division Three East.
Teams in the East and West sections will play each other home and away; last season's Division Three was so large that member teams met only once.
Elsewhere in the Lincs League, Broughton's first teamers will again play in Division One, having just missed out on promotion to the Premier when the last season ended in September.
Hibaldstow have been relegated from Division One to Division Two.
In addition to league fixtures, our four local teams will be involved in cup competitions.
Brigg Town and Broughton 2nds will be in the Supplementary Cup which involves mini-leagues with the qualifiers from each section meeting in semi-finals. Competing teams are drawn from Division Three East and Division Three West.
Broughton first team will be playing in the senior KO competition, the George Marshall Trophy, while Hibaldstow will be in the Bob Welton Cup.
Brocklesby Park is an historic club, whose player/officials include Richard Bedwell who started his league career with Brigg many years ago before going to play for the Park, although he did re-appear for Town occasionally last season.
Many other cricketers now living in Brigg also made appearances for 'Brock Park' while it played Saturday and Sunday friendlies against rural teams from Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire.
The club's huge online database includes details of games going right back to the 1850s.
Individual players' performances and career records are included.
The club used to play on a ground near the Earl of Yarborough's Brocklesby Hall, on the country estate.
In line with many rural grounds established in the Victorian era, this playing area was surrounded by a wooden stockade and it had an historic timber pavilion adorned with framed pictures of Brocklesby teams which had used it more than 100 years earlier.
However, in recent years Brocklesby Park CC has switched to a ground in Keelby.
We played friendly and midweek games for Brocklesby in the 1980s and 1990s to supplement appearances for Brigg Town.
Many other Brigg Hockey Club players did likewise from the 1960s and 1970s, including Val Jeffrey, Keith Smith, Coun Lewis Strange and Stuart Trevor; Cadney farming trio Mike, Peter and Jamie Burbidge; and well-known former Brigg teacher Peter Thompson.
We wish Brocklesby Park well now they have finally joined the Lincolnshire League, which is seen as the senior Saturday competition in the north of the county, having been founded in 1963.

PICTURED: July 2021 - Brigg openers Danny Dewfall and Harry Cawkwell getting ready to open the innings in the eight-wicket home league win against Horncastle at The Rec; top right - Richard Bedwell; lower right - veteran Brigg all-rounder Jack Richards during the same game.