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
W. G. Grace's cricket career (1864 to 1870) adopted until 1867. West Gloucestershire Cricket Club was renamed Gloucestershire County Cricket Club in 1867 and achieved first-class status in 1870. Grace himself recalled: "Though the Gloucestershire County Club did not play regularly until 1870, my father frequently got up inter-county matches before that time. Those matches have never been generally chronicled, but they were played for five or six years, before first-class county cricket was established". Grace had been "notoriously unscholarly" as a boy. Although opportunities arose, he never went to university as his father was intent upon him pursuing a medical career. But Grace was approached by both