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
Fred Grace brothers, Grace learned how to play cricket at home on a practice pitch that the family had created on the site of a former orchard. He was coached by his father, Dr Henry Grace, and his uncle, Alfred Pocock. His mother, Martha, was a keen participant too and she provided the driving force and the motivation which crystallised into the competitive edge that EM, WG and Fred always had as first-class players. EM, several years older than WG and Fred, learned to play using a full size bat and, because it was too big for him as a boy, he