Gloucestershire County Cricket Club

Gloucestershire County
One-day name: Gloucestershire
Captain: Papua New Guinea Geraint Jones
One-day captain: Australia Michael Klinger
Coach: England
Richard Dawson
Overseas player(s): Australia Michael Klinger
Founded: 1870
Home ground: Nevil Road
Capacity: 7,500 – 17,500
First-class debut: Surrey
in 1870
at County Cricket Ground
Championship wins: 0
Pro40/ECB 40 wins: 1
FP Trophy/NatWest Trophy wins: 5
Twenty20 Cup wins: 0
Official website: gloscricket.co.uk

Gloucestershire County Cricket Club is one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the historic county of Gloucestershire.

The club plays most of its home games at the County Cricket Ground, Bristol. Currently, each season a number of games are played at the Cheltenham cricket festivals held at the College Ground, Cheltenham. In 2013, Friends Life t20 matches will be played in Cheltenham for the first time.[1] This is due, in part, to the ongoing redevelopment of the County Cricket Ground resulting in a temporary reduction of the capacity in Bristol. In recent years, matches were also played at the Gloucester cricket festival at The King's School, Gloucester.

Honours

First XI honours

Runners-Up (6) – 1930, 1931, 1947, 1959, 1969, 1986
2 Divisions since 2000 (2000–2003 D2, 2003–2005 D1, 2006– D2)
Division 2 – 3rd – 2003 – Promoted to Division 1, 2005 – Relegated to Division 2
Semi-Finalists (6) – 1968, 1971, 1975, 1987, 1988, 2009
Division Two (2) – 2002, 2006
Finalists (1) – 2007
Semi-Finalists (1) – 2003
Finalists (1) – 2001
Semi-Finalists (1) – 1972

Second XI honours

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". See Alice B Gomme : The Traditional Games of England, Scotland and Ireland.

A game in Gloucester 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.

Origin of club

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 match versus Surrey at Durdham 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 sons WG, EM and Fred.[3]

Club history

Gloucestershire CCC in 1880.

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.

Since then Gloucestershire's fortunes have been mixed and they have never won the official County Championship. They struggled in the pre-war years of the County Championship because their best batsmen, apart from Gilbert Jessop and briefly Charlie 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 until George 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, when Charlie Parker and Tom Goddard formed a devastating spin attack.

Outstanding players since the war include Tom Graveney, "Jack" Russell and overseas players Mike Procter, Zaheer Abbas and Courtney Walsh.

Gloucestershire enjoyed a run of success in one-day cricket in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They won several titles mainly under the captaincy of Mark Alleyne whilst being coached by John Bracewell.

The club's captain for the 2006 season, Jon Lewis, became the first Gloucestershire player for nearly 10 years to play for England at Test Match level, when he was picked to represent his country in the Third Test against Sri Lanka at Trent Bridge in June 2006.[5] His figures in the first innings were 3–68, including a wicket in his very first over in Test cricket, and he was widely praised for his debut performance.

Gloucestershire reached the final of the 2007 Twenty20 Cup, where they narrowly lost to Kent.[6]

Players

Current squad

No. Name Nat Birth date Batting Style Bowling Style Notes
Batsmen
2 Michael Klinger* double-dagger  Australia 4 July 1980 Right-handed — Overseas player
ListA captain
4 William Tavaré*  England 1 January 1990 Right-handed Right-arm medium
8 Geraint Jones* double-dagger  Papua New Guinea 14 July 1976 Right-handed — First-class captain
9 Hamish Marshall* double-dagger  New Zealand 15 February 1979 Right-handed Right-arm medium Vice captain
15 Chris Dent*  England 20 January 1991 Left-handed Slow left-arm orthodox
28 Ian Cockbain*  England 17 February 1987 Right-handed Right-arm medium
All-rounders
10 Jack Taylor*  England 12 November 1991 Right-handed Right-arm off break
11 Kieran Noema-Barnett*  New Zealand 4 June 1987 Left-handed Right-arm medium UK passport
13 Benny Howell*  England 5 October 1988 Right-handed Right-arm medium-fast
20 Robbie Montgomery  England 22 September 1994 Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium
34 Craig Miles*  England 20 July 1994 Right-handed Right-arm medium
Wicket-keepers
17 Gareth Roderick*  South Africa 28 August 1991 Right-handed Right-arm medium
29 Cameron Herring*  Wales 15 July 1994 Right-handed —
54 Peter Handscomb*  Australia 26 April 1991 Right-handed — UK passport
— Patrick Grieshaber*  England 24 November 1996 Right-handed —
Bowlers
6 Tom Smith*  England 29 August 1987 Right-handed Slow left-arm orthodox
14 David Payne*  England 15 February 1991 Left-handed Left-arm fast-medium
16 Tom Hampton  England 5 October 1990 Right-handed Right-arm medium-fast
24 Liam Norwell*  England 27 December 1991 Right-handed Right-arm medium
26 James Fuller*  New Zealand 24 January 1990 Right-handed Right-arm fast
36 Matthew Taylor*  England 8 July 1994 Right-handed Left-arm medium-fast
88 Miles Hammond*  England 11 January 1996 Left-handed Right-arm off break

Source: Cricinfo

International players

Among the international players who have represented Gloucestershire are:

Club captains

WG Grace dominated the club's early history. He made 22,808 runs and took 1,339 wickets for the county.

Records

Most first-class runs for Gloucestershire
Qualification – 20000 runs

PlayerRuns
Wally Hammond 33664
Arthur Milton 30218
Alfred Dipper 27948
Ron Nicholls 23607
Martin Young 23400
WG Grace 22808
George Emmett 22806
Jack Crapp 22195
Charlie Barnett 21221

Most first-class wickets for Gloucestershire
Qualification – 1000 wickets

PlayerWickets
Charlie Parker 3170
Tom Goddard 2862
George Dennett 2082
Sam Cook 1768
John Mortimore 1696
WG Grace 1339
Tony Brown 1223
Reg Sinfield 1165
David Smith 1159

The County Ground, Ashley Down, Bristol

Team totals

Batting

Best Partnership for each wicket

Bowling

Shirt sponsors

One Day / T20 Cricket

Season Kit Supplier Kit Sponsor
FC LA T20
2000 Avec Merchant Investors n/a
2001 GM
2002
2003 Surridge Acorn Recruitment
2004 Marston's
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009 Gray-Nicolls
2010
2011 Total Sitec
2012
2013

References

  1. ↑ "Friends Life t20 cricket is coming to Cheltenham". Gloucestershire County Cricket Club (gloscricket.co.uk). 26 November 2012. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  2. ↑ An unofficial seasonal title sometimes proclaimed by consensus of media and historians prior to December 1889 when the official County Championship was constituted. Although there are ante-dated claims prior to 1873, when residence qualifications were introduced, it is only since that ruling that any quasi-official status can be ascribed.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Rae, p.89.
  4. ↑ CricketArchive – match scorecard. Retrieved on 24 November 2008.
  5. ↑ "Swinging onto centre stage". Andrew Miller (ESPNcricinfo). 2 June 2006. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  6. ↑ "Kent take Twenty20 in thrilling final". Andrew McGlashan (ESPNcricinfo). 4 August 2007. Retrieved 5 May 2013.
  7. ↑ "Scorecard - Gloucestershire CCC vs Worcestershire CCC, 21-24 July 2014". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 23 July 2014.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gloucestershire County Cricket Club.

Bibliography