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| One Day name | Gloucestershire | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personnel | ||||
| Captain | Cameron Bancroft | |||
| One Day captain | Jack Taylor | |||
| Coach | Mark Alleyne | |||
| Overseas player(s) | Cameron Bancroft D'Arcy Short (T20) | |||
| Team information | ||||
| Founded | 1870; 155 years ago (1870) | |||
| Home ground | Seat Unique Stadium | |||
| Capacity | 7,500 – 17,500 | |||
| History | ||||
| First-class debut | Surrey in 1870 at Durdham Down, Bristol | |||
| Championship wins | 0 (unofficial Champion County 4 times) | |||
| One-Day Cup wins | (2)
| |||
| FP Trophy/NatWest Trophy wins | (5)
| |||
| Benson & Hedges Cup wins | (3)
| |||
| Twenty20 Cup wins | (1) | |||
| Official website | gloscricket.co.uk | |||
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Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, founded in 1870, is one of 18first-classcounty clubs within the domesticcricket structure ofEngland andWales. It represents thehistoric county ofGloucestershire. The team played its first senior match in 1870, under thecaptaincy ofW. G. Grace.
Beginning with Grace, and his brothersE. M. andFred, many great players have represented Gloucestershire, includingGilbert Jessop,Charlie Parker,Tom Goddard,Wally Hammond,Tom Graveney,Zaheer Abbas,Mike Procter,Jack Russell,Courtney Walsh, andMuttiah Muralitharan. The club has had two notable periods of success: in the 1870s, when it was unofficially acclaimed as theChampion County on at least three occasions; and from 1999 to 2006, when it won seven limited overs trophies, notably a 'double double' in 1999 and 2000 (theBenson and Hedges Cup and theC&G Trophy in both seasons), and theSunday League in 2000.[1]
Most of Gloucestershire's home games are played at theBristol County Ground in theBishopston area of northBristol. Traditionally, the county has staged cricket festivals inCheltenham andGloucester, these matches being played at theCollege Ground in Cheltenham, and onArchdeacon Meadow at theKing's School in Gloucester.
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". SeeAlice Gomme:The Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Ireland.
A game inGloucester on 22 September 1729 is the earliest definite reference to cricket in the county. From then until the founding of the county club, very little has been found outside parish cricket.
In the early 1840s, Dr Henry Grace and his brother-in-law Alfred Pocock founded the Mangotsfield Cricket Club which merged in 1846 with the West Gloucestershire Cricket Club, whose name was adopted until 1867, after which it became the Gloucestershire County Cricket Club.[3] Grace hoped that Gloucestershire would 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.[3]
Dr Grace's club played Gloucestershire's initial first-class matchversusSurrey atDurdham Down in Bristol on 2, 3 & 4 June 1870.[4] Gloucestershire joined the (unofficial)County Championship at this time but the existence of the Cheltenham club seems to have forestalled the installation of its "constitutional trappings".[3] The Cheltenham club was wound up in March 1871 and its chief officials accepted positions in the hierarchy of Gloucestershire.[3] 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.[3]
What is certain is that Dr Grace was able to form the county club because of its playing strength, especially his three sonsW. G.,E. M. andFred.[3]
The early history of Gloucestershire is dominated by theGrace family, most notablyW. G. Grace, who was the club's original captain and held that post until his departure for London in 1899. His brotherE. M. Grace, although still an active player, was the original club secretary. With the Grace brothers andBilly Midwinter in their team, Gloucestershire won threeChampion County titles in the 1870s.
Since then Gloucestershire's fortunes have been mixed and they have never won the officialCounty Championship. They struggled in the pre-war years of the County Championship because their best batsmen, apart fromGilbert Jessop and brieflyCharlie Townsend, were very rarely available. The bowling, except when Townsend did sensational things on sticky wickets in late 1895 and late 1898, was very weak untilGeorge Dennett emerged – then it had the fault of depending far too much on him.Wally Hammond, who still holds many of the county's batting records formed part of an occasionally strong inter-war team, although the highest championship finish during this period was second in 1930 and 1931, whenCharlie Parker andTom Goddard formed a devastating spin attack.
Outstanding players since the war includeTom Graveney,"Jack" Russell and overseas playersMike Procter,Zaheer Abbas andCourtney Walsh.
Gloucestershire was very successful in one-day cricket in the late 1990s and early 2000s winning several titles under the captaincy ofMark Alleyne and coaching ofJohn Bracewell. The club operated on a small budget and was famed as a team greater than the sum of its parts, boasting few international stars.[1] Gloucestershire's overall knockout record between 1999 and 2002 was 28 wins and seven losses from 37 games, including 16 wins from 18 at theBristol County Ground.
The club's run of success started by defeatingYorkshire to win the Benson & Hedges Super Cup in 1999 before then beating neighboursSomerset in the1999 NatWest Trophy final atLord's. In 2000 Gloucestershire completed a hat-trick of one-day titles, winning all the domestic limited overs tournaments, theBenson and Hedges Cup, theC&G Trophy and theSunday League in the same season. The club maintained its success winning the C&G Trophy in 2003 and 2004, beatingWorcestershire in the final on both occasions.
The club's captain for the 2006 season,Jon Lewis, became the first Gloucestershire player for nearly 10 years to play forEngland atTest match level, when he was picked to represent his country in the Third Test againstSri Lanka atTrent Bridge in June 2006.[5] His figures in the first innings were 3–68, including a wicket in his first over in Test cricket, and he was widely praised for his debut performance.
Following the retirement of several key players, such as"Jack" Russell andMark Alleyne, Gloucestershire's fortunes declined. The club subsequently stripped back its playing budget as it looked to finance the redevelopment of theBristol County Ground in order to maintain Category B status and secure future international games at their home ground. Performances suffered and despite reaching the final of the 2007 Twenty20 Cup, losing narrowly to Kent,[6] the club failed to win any major trophies for a decade.
In 2013 Gloucestershire stopped using 'Gloucestershire Gladiators' as its limited-overs name.[7]
Gloucestershire won their first major silverware for 11 years in 2015, overcoming favouredSurrey to win theRoyal London One-Day Cup in the final atLord's. CaptainMichael Klinger, who flew back from Australia to play in the semi-final win overYorkshire, was named the tournament's MVP scoring 531 runs at an average of over 106.[8]
In2024 Gloucestershire broke theirT20 Blast duck, winning it for the first time with wins overSussex in the semi final[9] and West Country rivalsSomerset in the final.[10] The Shire became the first county to take 20 wickets on a single Finals Day, while David Payne became the leading pace bowling wicket taker in the history of the T20 Blast after picking up three wickets in the final.[11]
Gloucestershire contest one of English cricket's fiercest rivalries, theWest Country derby againstSomerset, which usually draws the biggest crowd of the season for either team. Traditionally, the boundary between the counties is drawn by theRiver Avon. Although Gloucestershire CCC's home ground is in Bristol, which straddles the Avon (and has been a county in its own right since 1373), many people from south Bristol favour Somerset CCC despite the fact the club plays its home games much further away inTaunton. In the past,Somerset played first-class matches at venues in the south of Bristol.[12][13]
The club's debut home match in first-class cricket was played atDurdham Down in theClifton district ofBristol.[14] This was the only time the county used this venue for a match.[15] The following year Gloucestershire began to play matches at theClifton College Close Ground in the grounds ofClifton College in the same part of the city, and this remained a regular venue for the county until the 1930s, hosting nearly 100 first-class matches. In 1872 the county used a venue outside Bristol for the first time when they played at theCollege Ground in the grounds ofCheltenham College. This venue has continued to be used regularly for the county's annual "Cheltenham festival" event, which in the modern era incorporates additional charity events and off-field entertainment.[16] In 1889 Gloucestershire began to play matches at theBristol County Ground in Bristol, which has subsequently served as the club's main headquarters and hosted the majority of the county's matches. It was here that the club played its first List A match in 1963 againstMiddlesex, and its first Twenty20 match forty years later againstWorcestershire.Somerset have played first-class matches at other venues in the city.[12][13]
In the 1920s Gloucestershire ceased playing at theSpa Ground inGloucester, which had been in use since 1882, and switched to theWagon Works Ground in the city. This ground remained in use for nearly 70 years, hosting over 150 first-class matches, before its use was discontinued in 1992. In 2012 the club investigated the possibility of returning to the Wagon Works Ground and making it their permanent headquarters after being refused permission for extensive redevelopment of the County Ground in Bristol,[17] but ultimately this did not occur. In 1993, the club moved its base in Gloucester toArchdeacon Meadow, a ground owned byThe King's School. This venue was only used for first-class matches until 2008 but was used for four Twenty20 matches in 2010 and 2011, the most recent county games to take place in the city. All subsequent matches have taken place in either Bristol or Cheltenham.
| No. | Name | Nat | Birth date | Batting style | Bowling style | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Batters | ||||||
| 1 | Cameron Bancroft ‡ |  Australia | (1992-11-19)19 November 1992 (age 33) | Right-handed | — | Club captain; Overseas player |
| 10 | Jack Taylor |  England | (1991-11-12)12 November 1991 (age 34) | Right-handed | Right-armleg break | Captain (List A & T20) |
| 24 | Joe Phillips | England | (2003-11-09)9 November 2003 (age 22) | Right-handed | Right-armoff break | |
| 62 | D'Arcy Short ‡ | Australia | (1990-08-09)9 August 1990 (age 35) | Left-handed | Slow left-arm unorthodox | Overseas player (T20 only) |
| 64 | Ben Charlesworth | England | (2000-11-19)19 November 2000 (age 25) | Left-handed | Right-armfast-medium | |
| 71 | Tommy Boorman | England | (2005-04-12)12 April 2005 (age 20) | Right-handed | Right-armoff break | |
| 73 | Kamran Dhariwal | England | (2005-03-08)8 March 2005 (age 20) | Right-handed | — | |
| 88 | Miles Hammond | England | (1996-01-11)11 January 1996 (age 29) | Left-handed | Right-armoff break | |
| All-rounders | ||||||
| 12 | Graeme van Buuren |  South Africa | (1990-08-22)22 August 1990 (age 35) | Right-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | UK Passport |
| 20 | Ahmed Syed | England | (2004-09-26)26 September 2004 (age 21) | Right-handed | Slow left-arm orthodox | |
| 55 | Ed Middleton | England | (2000-12-28)28 December 2000 (age 24) | Right-handed | Right-armleg break | |
| 67 | Ollie Price | England | (2001-06-12)12 June 2001 (age 24) | Right-handed | Right-armoff break | |
| 77 | Daz Ahmed | England | (2000-09-17)17 September 2000 (age 25) | Right-handed | Right-armfast-medium | |
| Wicket-keepers | ||||||
| 25 | James Bracey ‡ | England | (1997-05-03)3 May 1997 (age 28) | Left-handed | — | |
| Bowlers | ||||||
| 14 | David Payne ‡ | England | (1991-02-15)15 February 1991 (age 34) | Left-handed | Left-armfast-medium | White ball contract |
| 19 | Luke Charlesworth | England | (2003-04-04)4 April 2003 (age 22) | Right-handed | Right-armfast-medium | |
| 22 | Aman Rao | England | (2004-06-22)22 June 2004 (age 21) | Right-handed | Right-armfast-medium | |
| 34 | Craig Miles | England | (1994-07-20)20 July 1994 (age 31) | Right-handed | Right-armfast-medium | |
| 36 | Matthew Taylor | England | (1994-07-08)8 July 1994 (age 31) | Right-handed | Left-armfast-medium | |
| 90 | Marchant de Lange ‡ | South Africa | (1990-10-13)13 October 1990 (age 35) | Right-handed | Right-armfast | UK Passport; White ball contract |
| — | Alfie Johnson | England | (2007-01-19)19 January 2007 (age 18) | Left-handed | Right-armoff break | |
| — | Will Williams |  New Zealand | (1992-10-06)6 October 1992 (age 33) | Right-handed | Right-armfast-medium | UK Passport |
Source:Cricinfo
Among the international players who have represented Gloucestershire are:
Most first-class runs for Gloucestershire
| Most first-class wickets for Gloucestershire
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Team totals
Batting
Best partnership for each wicket
Bowling
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