MIDDLESBROUGH cricket and rugby stars of the past turned out yesterday for the opening of the new £1.5m clubhouse at Acklam Park.

Former England rugby player Rory Underwood and Durham and England cricketer Liam Plunkett unveiled the plaque, watched by two other exinternationals in the Old brothers, Chris and Alan.

Chris Old revealed that he has just sold the fish and chip shop he has run in Cornwall for 11 years, but will continue to live there and coach cricket.

“The climate’s a bit kinder to the body down there,” he said. “It’s a long way to come back here, but it’s always good to see family and old friends.”

Yorkshire and England cricket sweaters donated by Chris, and international rugby shirts provided by Alan, are among the memorabilia displayed in the hugely impressive clubhouse.

A photograph featuring Alan shows the teams from the 1972 centenary match, when London Welsh were the visitors. The old changing rooms in the background were replaced in 1975 by the pavilion which was now been extended and fully modernised.

“It’s fantastic,” said Underwood, watched by his mother Annie, from Barnard Castle, who became famous for jumping up and down on the Twickenham terraces whenever either of her sons scored for England.

Also present were former Acklam Park groundsmen Keith Boyce, who went on to Headingley, and Tom Flintoft, who went to Hampshire then Durham, where he laid out the Riverside ground.

In a rugby match after the offical opening Middlesbrough lost 30-17 to the Anti-Assassins, for whom Blaydon centre James Clark scored a hat-trick.