'LIVE' COVERAGE FROM BRIGG SCHOOL SPORTS DAY ENJOYED FAR AND WIDE

Brigg residents across a wide area of the town were able to follow progress during the annual sports day held at the town's Sir John Nelthorpe School.
Race commentary and updates from the school field - provided for pupils and staff who were present - could be heard well beyond the SJN boundary.
The school's PE Department also posted pictures and video footage via Twitter, the worldwide social media platform, on Thursday morning (July 7). View them through this link...
The initial post appeared online almost as soon as the finishing line came in sight for the front-runners.

 

 
This use of modern technology is a massive improvement when compared to how sports days were in the Brigg Grammar School era (on the same site) and in the early decades of the Nelthorpe comprehensive (established in 1976).
Race-winning pupils and their proud parents back then had to wait until the next issues of local weekly newspapers appeared to have their successes shared beyond the school, although occasionally a photographer from the Scunthorpe Evening Telegraph appeared to reduce the time to a day or two.
In some ways, however, there are similarities between the scenes posted on social media by SJN on Thursday and those recorded by newspaper photographers decades ago.
The Victorian boarding house building provided a backdrop to images on sports day 2022 (example at the top of this post) as it had done 40 or 50 years earlier, while the athletics lanes and the finishing line appear to be similarly located.
Running races today still take place on grass, too, rather than all-weather 'Tartan track' (very expensive to install) which is very much the norm for athletics meetings in 2022.
However, Sir John Nelthorpe School has had an all-weather cricket strip where the batting and bowling action takes place for many years - a replacement for playing on the original grass square which required extensive and skilled maintenance to keep it in good order, plus marking out of the crease lines at both ends for every match.
Sir John Nelthorpe School was founded 46 years ago by merging the Grammar with Brigg Girls' High School, which had adjoining sports fields.
Below is an action picture taken on sports day at the High School (perhaps in the 1960s) which reflects changing times.
One of the girl competitors is running in bare feet, while the others wore plimsolls.
We think these could be picked up cheaply at Woolworth's store on Wrawby Street, Brigg.
Can any 'old girls' today remember where Mum bought the ones they wore for sports decades ago?
Having followed SJN's sports day by ear and via Twitter on our laptop at home, Brigg Blog rather wished we'd sought permission to go down and 'cover' sports day 2022.
It's a long time since, as a pupil, we ran (unsuccessfully) in races over 100, 200 and 400 yards (not metres) and competed in 'field' events like the long and high jumps, and even throwing the cricket ball (more to our liking for obvious reasons!).