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 such a match took place that summer. Grace was selected along with EM and WG to play for England at The Oval. The match was played Monday, 6 to Wednesday, 8 September and was later recognised as the inaugural Test in England. Grace was out for nought in both innings and so became, albeit retrospectively, the first player to be dismissed for a pair on Test debut. He made his mark on the match by holding a celebrated, and possibly match-winning, catch on the boundary in front of the gasometer at the Vauxhall End. This was from a shot by