Gloucestershire (cricket)

Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county cricket clubs which make up the English domestic structure, representing the historic county of Gloucestershire. Its limited overs team is called the Gloucestershire Gladiators.

The club plays most of its home games at the County Cricket Ground, Bristol. A number of games are played each season at the Cheltenham and Gloucester cricket festivals on College Ground, Cheltenham and The King's School, Gloucester.

Honours

 * Champion County (3) – 1874, 1876, 1877; shared (1) – 1873
 * County Championship (0) – 
 * Division Two (0) –


 * ECB Knockout Trophy (5) – 1973, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2004
 * ECB National League (1) – 2000
 * Division Two (2) – 2002, 2006


 * Twenty20 Cup (0) – 
 * Benson & Hedges Cup (3) – 1977, 1999, 2000

Second XI honours

 * Second XI Championship (1) –  1959; shared (0) – 
 * Second XI Trophy (0) – 
 * Minor Counties Championship (0) –  ; shared (0) – 

Earliest cricket
Cricket probably reached Gloucestershire by the end of the 17th century. It is known that the related sport of "Stow-Ball" aka "Stob-Ball" was played in the county during the 16th century. In this game, the bat was called a "stave".

A game in Gloucester on 22 September 1729 is the earliest definite reference to cricket in the county. From then until the foundation of the county club, very little has been found outside parish cricket.

Origin of club
Dr Henry Grace and his brother-in-law Alfred Pocock founded the Mangotsfield Cricket Club in 1845 to represent several neighbouring villages including Downend, where the Grace family resided. In 1846, this club merged with the West Gloucestershire Cricket Club whose name was adopted until 1867. It has been said that the Grace family ran the West Gloucestershire "almost as a private club". Henry Grace managed to organise matches against Lansdown Cricket Club in Bath, which was the premier West Country club. West Gloucestershire fared poorly in these games and, sometime in the 1850s, Henry Grace and Alfred Pocock decided to join Lansdown, although they continued to run the West Gloucestershire and this remained their primary club.

In 1867, West Gloucestershire changed its name to Gloucestershire County Cricket Club. Henry Grace hoped to join the first-class county clubs but the situation was complicated in 1863 by the formation of a rival club called the Cheltenham and Gloucestershire Cricket Club. But Dr Grace's club played Gloucestershire's inaugural first-class match versus Surrey at Durdham Down near Bristol on 2, 3 & 4 June 1870. The existence of the Cheltenham club seems to have forestalled the installation of Gloucestershire's "constitutional trappings", but the Cheltenham club was wound up in March 1871 and its chief officials accepted positions in the hierarchy of Gloucestershire. So, although the exact details and dates of the county club's foundation are uncertain, it has always been assumed that the year was 1870 and the club celebrated its centenary in 1970.

What is certain is that Dr Grace was able to form the county club because of its playing strength, especially his three sons W G, E M and Fred.

Club history
The early history of Gloucestershire is dominated by the Grace family, most notably W G Grace, who was the club's original captain and held that post until his departure for London in 1899. His brother E M Grace, although still an active player, was the original club secretary. With the Grace brothers and Billy Midwinter in their team, Gloucestershire won three Champion County titles in the 1870s.

Gloucestershire declined in the 1880s. One of the main reasons was the early death of Fred Grace from pneumonia in 1880, there being a view that "the county was never quite the same without him". Apart from W G himself, the only players of Fred Grace's calibre at this time were the leading professionals. Unlike the south-east and northern counties, Gloucestershire had neither the large home gates nor the necessary funds that could have secured the services of good quality professionals. This was at a time when a new generation of professionals was emerging and, as a result, Gloucestershire fell away in county competition and could no longer match Nottinghamshire, Surrey and Lancashire who had the strongest sides in the 1880s.

Subsequently, Gloucestershire's fortunes have been mixed and they have not yet won the official County Championship. They came close when finishing second in each of 1930 and 1931, largely because Charlie Parker and Tom Goddard formed a formidable spin attack in support of the great batsman Wally Hammond. Gloucestershire's problems were often that they depended far too much one or two outstanding players, repeatedly mirroring the situation in the 1880s when W G carried the team.

Gloucestershire has enjoyed success in limited overs cricket with a couple of trophies in the 1970s and then a lengthy period from 1999 to 2004 when seven titles were won under the captaincy of Mark Alleyne. More recently, Gloucestershire reached the final of the 2007 Twenty20 Cup, but narrowly lost to Kent.

In 2010, Gloucestershire plays in Division Two of the County Championship.

Notable players
Gloucestershire has been served by several great players, above all the man who is probably the greatest of all cricketers: W G Grace. Other world-class players at the club have been Gilbert Jessop, Wally Hammond, Tom Graveney, Mike Procter and Courtney Walsh.

Players who have given notable service to the club include:
 * Alex Gidman
 * Alfred Dipper
 * Arthur Milton
 * Billy Midwinter
 * Charlie Barnett
 * Charlie Parker
 * Charlie Townsend
 * Courtney Walsh
 * Craig Spearman
 * David Graveney
 * David Smith
 * E M Grace
 * Fred Grace
 * George Dennett
 * George Emmett
 * Gilbert Jessop
 * Jack Crapp
 * Jack Russell
 * Javagal Srinath
 * John Mortimore
 * Jon Lewis
 * Mark Alleyne
 * Martin Young
 * Mike Procter
 * Reg Sinfield
 * Ron Nicholls
 * Sadiq Mohammad
 * Sam Cook
 * Tom Goddard
 * Tom Graveney
 * Tom Pugh
 * Tony Brown
 * W G Grace
 * Wally Hammond
 * Zaheer Abbas