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
Cheltenham Cricket Club Cheltenham Cricket Club Cheltenham Cricket Club is an English amateur cricket club based in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire first envisioned in 1891. It played its first game on 21 June 1897 against a picked XI of WG Grace. The club's first team plays in the West of England Premier League which is an accredited ECB Premier League, the highest level for recreational club cricket in England and Wales. It has also been a Ladies Hockey Club in 1899, tennis club in 1912 and training area for the armed forces during World War I. It hosted County Championship cricket matches from 1923 until