Gloucestershire County Cricket Club League in 2000. 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. In the early 1840s, Dr Henry Grace and his
Essex county cricket teams should be called Essex or Hornchurch. But there is no doubt that Essex held important match status from 1785 until 1794, after which the county strangely and abruptly disappeared from the records for a long time. Little was heard of Essex cricket from 1794 until the formation of Essex County Cricket Club on 14 January 1876 at a meeting in the Shire Hall, Brentwood. The new club did not achieve first-class status until 1894. The team played its inaugural first-class match on 14, 15 & 16 May 1894 against Leicestershire County Cricket Club (who were also making their first-class debut)