Richardson Challenge Cup

In 1892, organized by a Mr E Smith from Barton, a competition was formed to play for a cup given by Mr John Maunsell Richardson with an aim of "giving impetus to and increasing the popularity of the game in the North Lindsey area of the county". Richardson was a Cambridge ‘Blue’ and first class cricketer with both the University and the Marylebone Cricket Club. When he made his debut in 1866, a 17 year old WG Grace played in the opposition. He was also a jockey who rode in the Grand National, winning twice in the 1870's and won the Brigg MP seat in an 1894 Bi - election only to relinquish it the following year at the general election. He married the wife of his friend Charles Anderson, 3rd Earl of Yarborough, who had died young and at the time of this competition was residing at Healing Manor, in front of which all subsequent Richardson Cup finals were played.

The competition was open to all clubs within the Brigg, Lindsey Parliamentary division. He did present two further trophies, one for local football clubs to compete for and also there was a trophy for an annual horse racing meet. The trophies were manufactured by Charles J Hill, a goldsmith and jeweller from Oxford Street, London and was described as “altogether above the usual challenge cup both in terms of weight of silver and importance of appearance”. An artists impression of it is provided.

In the inaugural season Grimsby Worsley CC, Frodingham CC and Brigg Town CC had been presented with a list of players barred from playing. These clubs being the premier clubs in the district, their engagement of professional cricketers presumably being the main reasoning for this rule. In the interest of fairness and bearing in mind that some of the clubs who had entered were just village clubs this ruling was accepted, reluctantly, by those aforementioned clubs.

 The list of missing players was as follows:-

Brigg – PH Cave, C Cave, Richmond Flowers, FD Hodgson, HM Jackson and Ike Rowbottom.

Frodingham – JW Hanby, Walter Maw, Dr Rollinson and G Frost.

Grimsby Worsley – JT Hamblin, R Williams, GW Goulding, J Brelsford, F Atter and CS Hall.

A further proposition by George Fairbank (Brigg Town) that four Barton Town CC players be barred was defeated 4 votes to 5.

There was also a request by Brigg Grammar School ‘Past and Present’ to enter a team although they were later rejected by the executive, presumably with Richmond Flowers, Headteacher at the Grammar School and he being one of the to Brigg players stopped from playing might educate as to why this was the case.

There were 16 clubs entered including Richardson’s own club Healing. Frodingham were the only club from the Scunthorpe region, whilst there were 4 Grimsby based clubs and representative teams from New Holland, Barrow upon Humber, Barton, Limber, Brocklesby, Kirmington and Caistor. Broughton and Winterton were village clubs from the North Lincolnshire region but it was Brigg Town, one of the most senior clubs in the district that won the cup in its first season.

Come the 1893 season, Mr Smith (Barton Town) had become the Secretary and the meeting was presided over by Rev E Loft (Kirmington). Prophetically a decision to appoint a management committee took place at the February meeting. A Swindells (New Holland) and C Sissons (Brocklesby) joined the already very influential Brigg and Frodingham secretaries, Messrs Fairbank and Woodley to form a sub-committee to deal with any ‘protests and objections over the course of the competition’.

The competition was still played on a Knock-out basis, 19 teams entering to take part, with a number of preliminary round matches, followed by three rounds and a final. Brigg won, but Frodingham, the beaten finalists lodged a complaint, claiming that one of the Brigg players was a 'non resident'. The player in question being Mr A Field, son of the vicar of Bigby. The match was ordered to be replayed. When Brigg refused to return the cup or the winners medals, they were disqualified and Frodingham declared the winners.

Brigg were expelled for the 1894 season, despite a winter of talks with league and club committees they were not included for the next edition. In fact, Frodingham didn’t play either, the competition was reduced to just 8 teams split in an Eastern and Western Division. Perhaps this was the fall out of a very public and vocal disagreement between two of the leading clubs leading to only half of the previous field entering. The competition was played in a league format with teams playing each other twice. The final was contested between a Winterton and District XI and a Caistor XI - Caistor winning thanks to bowling Winterton out for 17 in the second innings.

For 1895, the competition reverted back to a straight Knock Out system where Broughton (semi-finalists in 1892), had entered a combined side with neighbours Scawby CC in an attempt to win the competition. Thanks to players like AS Johnson (school teacher at Brigg Grammar and Scawby's best batsmen), the former chairman of the competition George Spillman (farmer and auctioneer from Broughton Vale), Major Chichester and Broughton allrounder Elwood 'Nepper' Parish the side reached the final against Healing. In the end the Combined Broughton and Scawby side lost by an innings and 39 runs.

In a newspaper article later that year Richardson was quoted as saying "as long as he will be at Healing he hopes to keep a football field and cricket ground and that the Healing Club will go on to win more cups like the one won this summer". 

In 1896, with the competition reverting back again to a league system, Healing beat Brigg by 4 wickets on second innings to secure their second successive cup success. Again the competition was split into two regionalized divisions with six teams in the Southern section including a Scawby side now going it alone without their neighbours on board. The Grimsby section just had the Healing Club and three Grimsby based teams, including the Civil Service which competed for the first time this season. The previous incarnation of a divisional based system was largely very local to the Scunthorpe area, for 1896 it was very much split for travel purposes. All clubs were based within half a mile of a train station which potentially explains the drop off in participants from Broughton and Caistor especially. In the southern section each club played 10 fixtures before the final decider.

We know there was a competition played in 1897. But very little of this is covered in the local newspapers. There is a list of fixtures played in the Southern Section with Barnetby dropping out and Brigg putting their Wednesday side into the competition. Healing played Elsham on Saturday 21^st August which it is believed resulted in a Healing victory and thus they retained the cup for a third successive season and so it was theirs to keep outright.

The competition wasn't played again, not even with a different trophy. Efforts were made in 1908 to form a Grimsby League, this passed through to the Great War, but very much involved only Grimsby clubs. In the Scunthorpe area the Dinsdale Cricket League started up in 1904 and ever since, except for the Great War there has always been a competitive cricket league in the North of Lincolnshire.

 
List of Winners

1892 – Brigg Town

1893 – Frodingham (by default)

1894 – Caistor

1895 – Healing and District

1896 – Healing and District

1897 – Healing and District