Glamorgan (cricket)

Cricket probably reached the county of Glamorgan by the end of the seventeenth century and the earliest definite reference to it is a match at Swansea in 1780. Glamorgan County Cricket Club was founded at a meeting in the Angel Hotel, Cardiff, on 6 July 1888. The club were members of the Minor Counties Championship until after the First World War (they shared the title in 1900) and then they applied for membership of the County Cricket Championship, which they joined in 1921. Their inaugural first-class match was against Sussex at the Cardiff Arms Park, 18–20 May 1921. Glamorgan have won the County Championship three times in 1948, 1969 and 1997; and they have won three limited overs tournaments.

The club has played at numerous South Wales venues over the years but their main home has always been in Cardiff, first at the Arms Park and since 1967 at the Sophia Gardens ground, which has been an international venue since 1999. Another of Glamorgan's venues is the St Helen's Ground in Swansea, which is where Gary Sobers hit six sixes off an over by Malcolm Nash in 1968. Glamorgan is the only non-English county in the County Championship and the majority of its players over the years have been Welsh, but those of Test standard have played for England internationally. Among famous Glamorgan players have been Wilf Wooller, Gilbert Parkhouse, Alan Jones, Don Shepherd, Tony Lewis, Javed Miandad, Matthew Maynard, Steve Watkin, and Simon Jones.