MENTION the other day of Acklam Park, in Middlesbrough, prompted Eddie Roxburgh to memories of some of Yorkshire cricket’s out grounds, though there was a black Boro day in 1965 that the White Rose would much rather forget.

They played Hampshire, batted first, would have totalled even less than the paltry 121 but for 55 from F S Trueman and for Richard Hutton’s 22.

Hants fared little better, Trueman 2-15 and Hutton 3-33 as the visitors led by four runs on first innings.

Then Yorkshire’s problems really began. A side that included Boycott, Hampshire, Padgett, Close, Sharpe and Illingworth were skittled for just 23, Butch White claiming 6-10. It remains Yorkshire’s lowest-ever first-class score and was just the 11th time that century that the county had been dismissed for fewer than 50.

“Thrashed and humiliated. News that shook the sporting world,” said the following day’s Echo, alongside a front page picture of a young lady – said to be “stunned” – called Elizabeth Henderson.

An editorial column congratulated Hampshire on “a fine bowling performance in the Teesside haze”. Ray Robertson on the back page supposed that the fourpenny score card would be worth a fortune as a souvenir.

Alex Flatters, Acklam Park’s “craggy faced” groundsman, insisted the collapse was nothing to do with the pitch – “There’s millions of runs in it” – a view reluctantly shared by Tykes skipper Brian Close. “It was a seam bowlers’ wicket,” he said. “Our trouble was that we got too many edges off the bat.”

Colin Ingleby McKenzie, Hampshire’s elegant skipper, thought that the vanquished side would still win the championship. They finished fourth.

MAY 20, 1965? The cost of posting a letter had gone up from 3d to 4d and a fivepenny United bus fare to a tanner. The BBC was broadcasting the world heavyweight fight between Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston live at 3.30am, 121 people were killed in a plane crash in Egypt and former Sunderland winger Colin Grainger – the only England international ever to sing at the London Palladium – had been banned for three weeks for “striking and butting” a player in a match for Doncaster Rovers.

SAVE for the Scarborough Festival – “draws crowds like a magnate,” says a county website, though a magnet might equally be as effective – Yorkshire hasn’t used out grounds since 1996. For a long time before that they seemed never to be at home.

Bramall Lane, Sheffield – 391 first-class matches between 1863-1973 – is the second most used ground after Headingley, followed in turn by Bradford Park Avenue, with 306 matches.

Acklam Park staged 45 games, Yorkshire losing just eight of them. Forgetting the horrors of three years previously, Geoffrey Boycott’s 180 against Warwickshire in 1968 is the highest score on the ground.

Yorkshire also lost just eight times in 91 games between 1894-1996 on the splendid St George’s Road ground in Harrogate.

Less well-remembered outposts include Thrum Hall, Halifax (four matches), Holbeck Rec (three) and Hall Road, Horsforth, Wigginton Road in York and Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough, with one apiece.

Way back in the mists – Teesside was hazy, then as now – Yorkshire also played twice at the wonderfully named Swatters Carr in Middlesbrough, including a Roses match against the old enemy.

IT was June 1867, and not even the venerable Northern Echo around to record the great occasion. Put in to bat, Lancashire were dismissed for 97 – Emmett 6-41. Yorkshire hit 205 from 110 four-ball overs – W Smith 90 – and then dismissed Lancashire for a second time, Emmett claiming 4-25 and Freeman 5-25 as the visitors folded for just 68.

Back in the 17th century, Swatters Carr was a farm off Linthorpe Road. Now it’s the site of a Wetherspoons pub in Parmo-land, next to a dentist’s, said to be hung with all manner of photographs of historical interest.

Wetherspoons had even wanted to call it the Ironopolis until the nearby Ironopolis Social Club claimed that they’d bagged it first.

The column rings to enquire if there are any cricket pictures. “You’ll have to ask head office,” says the girl.

“It’s only a cricket photograph.”

“Sorry, it’s a matter for head office.”

A train trip to the Boro proves unproductive, though we’ve no complaints. As they used to say of a thin edge at Acklam Park, it gets you out, doesn’t it?

….and finally, the three batsmen to have scored 100 centuries in fewer than 600 innings (Backtrack, March 31) are Don Bradman (295 innings), Denis Compton (552) and Graeme Hick (574).

Fred Alderton, in Peterlee, today invites readers to name half a dozen England international footballers, past or present, with an x in their surname. He’s found 13.

Unlucky for some, the column returns next week.