WHISKY GALORE: BRIGG SPORTS TEAM PLAYED IN NATIONAL COMPETITION

Brigg Blog very recently received a circular email from the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) which brought back memories of when Brigg Town Cricket Club played in a national knockout competition in the late 1970s.
The message explained the ECB was looking for expressions of interest from clubs across the country to participate in the Royal London Club Championship 2022.
This competition is a 40-over per side knockout played throughout the season and provides an opportunity for clubs to play against opposition from other leagues, initially on a local level, followed by regional matches and the final at a first class county ground. The closing date for entries is Wednesday, January 12.
In the late 1970s, while secretary of Brigg Town, we found out about the John Haig Club Cricket Championship (an earlier version of today's Royal London) in which only two other local clubs (both bigger than Brigg) were then taking part.
It was sponsored by a famous whisky company.
An application for Brigg to join was duly posted off but we didn't hold out much hope of it being accepted, as Town were then in the bottom division of the Lincolnshire County League.
So it was very surprising to hear back from cricket HQ at Lord's in London that Brigg's application had been successful.
One season we managed to beat Brimington (from the Chestfield area) in a rain-affected first round tie at Sir John Nelthorpe School.
In the next stage Brigg were drawn away to Farsley of the Bradford League - half-a-dozen steps higher than us in the cricketing pyramid.
This tie attracted a paying crowd of more than 1,000 and a share of the gate receipts came Brigg Town's way, which compensated for being defeated in another rain-affected fixture. We took Scawby Brook umpire Ray Atton with us to officiate.
Another season saw Brigg Town playing at Rotherham in the John Haig competition.
They also played at a much higher level, probably the Yorkshire League, and their county-standard spin bowlers made short work of dismissing Brigg for a low score after our opening batsmen had given us a decent start.
Brigg won the Lincs League Division Three championship in 1979 but the club's fortunes took a downward turn in the early 1980s and we didn't not enter the John Haig competition again. It operated from 1976 to 1982 when a beer-making company took over.

PICTURED: Members of Brigg Town's championship-winning first team in 1979, photographed after a late-season home game at Sir John Nelthorpe School.