Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, representing the historic county of Gloucestershire, is one of the 18 member clubs of the English County Championship. The club was established in 1846 following the merger of the Mangotsfield Cricket Club and West Gloucestershire Cricket Club and played under the latter name until 1867, after which it became the Gloucestershire County Cricket Club. [1] It has played first-class cricket since 1870, List A cricket since 1963 and Twenty20 cricket since 2003. [2] [3] [4] [A] Unlike most professional sports, in which a team usually has a single fixed home ground, county cricket clubs have traditionally used different grounds in various towns and cities within the county for home matches, although the use of minor "out grounds" away from the club's main headquarters has diminished since the 1980s. [5] [6] Gloucestershire have played home matches at eighteen different grounds.
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The club's first home match in first-class cricket was played at Durdham Down in the Clifton district of Bristol. [2] This was the only time the county used this venue for a match. [7] The following year Gloucestershire began to play matches at the Clifton College Close Ground in the grounds of Clifton College in the same part of the city, and this remained a regular venue for the county until the 1930s, hosting nearly 100 first-class matches. In 1872 the county used a venue outside Bristol for the first time when they played at the College Ground in the grounds of Cheltenham College. This venue has continued to be used regularly for the county's annual "Cheltenham festival" event, which in the modern era incorporates additional charity events and off-field entertainment. [8] In 1889 Gloucestershire began to play matches at the County Ground in Bristol, which has subsequently served as the club's main headquarters and hosted the majority of the county's matches. It was here that the club played its first List A match in 1963 against Middlesex, and its first Twenty20 match forty years later against Worcestershire. Bristol is not officially part of Gloucestershire and has been considered an independent county since 1373, though it was officially part of the county of Avon from 1974 until 1996. [9] Somerset have played first-class matches at other venues in the city. [10] [11]
In the 1920s Gloucestershire ceased playing at the Spa Ground in Gloucester, which had been in use since 1882, and switched to the Wagon Works Ground in the city. This ground remained in use for nearly 70 years, hosting over 150 first-class matches, until its use was discontinued in 1992. In 2012 the club investigated the possibility of returning to the Wagon Works Ground and making it their permanent headquarters after being refused permission for extensive redevelopment of the County Ground in Bristol, [12] but ultimately this did not occur. In 1993, the club moved its base in Gloucester to Archdeacon Meadow, a ground owned by The King's School. This venue was only used for first-class matches until 2008 but was used for four Twenty20 matches in 2010 and 2011, the most recent county games to take place in the city. All subsequent matches have taken place in either Bristol or Cheltenham.
