THE FIRST TEAM TO PLAY WHAT WAS A NEW SPORT FOR BRIGG SCHOOL

Recent nostalgic posts about sport in Brigg over past decades have proved popular, according to comments received and the page view statistics generated for our site.
Former Brigg Grammar School pupil Mike Spencer has since emailed us the hockey team picture from 1957 (seen above) and provided all the names of those lined up on the school field.
Back row: John King, John Furniss, Mike Spencer, Roger Cole, David Sumpter (local solicitor & school governor Robin's brother), Bill Young.
Front Row: David Rhodes, Herb Collingham, David Haines, Alan Corney, John Rowley.
Surviving pictures of fully-identified hockey teams from the era when games were still being played on grass are quite rare.
This was the very first BGS school hockey side. Members are wearing dark and light-blue quartered shirts which were available from Shaw's Outfitters in the Market Place and possibly, also, Bradley's on Wrawby Street.
Mike tells us this sport was was brought to the school by John Bell, the geography master who, together with his brother Peter, played for the Brigg club in the 1950s, along with Mike's friend Mark Herring (amongst others).
Brigg Men's Hockey Club had been founded in 1920.
The 1960s saw a number of BGS masters playing regularly for the Brigg club including Jack Moore (chemistry), David Brittain (physics) and Vernon Atkin (French).
They helped to make hockey popular at the school, with many boys graduating into the local club's ranks while being educated or after they left.
Mike Spencer's reference to Peter Bell (John's brother) reminded us of Peter's farewell to club hockey circa 1985/6 while we were playing for Brigg.
Peter was given a very memorable 'liquid' retirement send off in the lounge at the Queens Arms on Wrawby Street (later the Fish Inn and then the Vines restaurant) with Len Marshall, club president and umpire, as the master of ceremonies.
Peter, who was then 57 or 58, had been a notable footballer with Brigg Town in the early 1950s on the old ground behind the Brocklesby Ox pub off Bridge Street.
He was then persuaded to try hockey with the Brigg club's first team and went on to play for Lincolnshire.
By the time of his retirement, he had dropped down to the Brigg 3rd XI. He was still performing well, but knee problems prompted him to call it a day.
And what a day it was!
After Peter had packed his stick into the kit-bag for the final time, landlady Jean Cunningham and staff were kept busy serving drinks through the serving hatch in the lounge - beers being followed by 'shorts' from the top shelf!
Peter later did some umpiring for the Brigg club.
Around 2003/4, he wrote a wonderfully detailed book about the history of Brigg Amateur Operatic Society, of which he and his wife were staunch members.
Peter was an advert rep employed by the Hull Daily Mail, which also ran the weekly Lincolnshire Times based at 57 Wrawby Street, Brigg (now the Hearing Centre).
A former Brigg Grammar School boarding house pupil, Mike Spencer has also kindly supplied team pictures from his time with Normanby Park Hockey Club and Lincolnshire. They appear below.
The 1963/64 season was a record-breaking one for this club. It played 27 matches, scoring 52 goals for and conceding only 16. Just two matches were lost.

 

Back row: P.A.S.J.Axe, M Collins, B Whitehouse, R.E.N.Flear, J.A. Millard, M.D. Spencer, D.B. Read.
Front: J.S.Wharton, W.N.Champion, S. M. Thompson, R. J. H. Sumpter (Capt.), T. D Johnson and J. W. A. Clugston.

Richard Coulthurst was a BGS Old Boy (attending the school 1943-1949). Ron Flear was an old school footballer until his later life when he turned to hockey (and played for the county for years).
The picture below shows the Lincolnshire county side in 1964 before playing Bedfordshire, in Bedford.

 

 

Top row: Josh White (Bourne), Alan Jenks (Boston), Mike Spencer (Normanby Park), Bernard ?? (App-Frod, Scunthorpe), Bob Creasy (Capt), Mike Perkins (Bourne).
Bottom: Steve Wharton (Normanby Park), Chris Ringrose (Boston), ?? (Grimsby), Johnny Ivens (Peterborough), Martin Atkinson (Grimsby). John Ivens had only recently retired from the England team when this photo was taken.