Glamorgan County Cricket Club () is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Glamorgan (). Founded in 1888, Glamorgan held minor status at first and was a prominent member of the early Minor Counties Championship before the First World War. In 1921, the club joined the County Championship and the team was elevated to first-class status, subsequently playing in every top-level domestic cricket competition in England and Wales.
Glamorgan is the only Welsh first-class cricket club. They have won the English County Championship competition in 1948, 1969 and 1997. Glamorgan have also beaten international teams from all of the Test playing nations, including Australia whom they defeated in successive tours in 1964 and 1968. The club's limited overs team is called simply Glamorgan. Kit colours are blue and yellow for limited overs matches.
The club is based in Cardiff and plays most of its home games at Sophia Gardens, which is located on the bank of the River Taff. Some First XI matches are also played at The Gnoll in Neath. Matches have also occasionally been played at Swansea, Rhos on Sea and Cresselly (despite the latter towns being in Conwy and Pembrokeshire respectively).
Honours
First XI honours County Championship (3) – 1948, 1969, 1997
Sunday/National League/One Day Cup (5) – 1993, 2002, 2004, 2021, 2024 County Championship Division Two Promoted - 2000, 2004, 2025 Minor Counties Championship (0) Shared (1): 1900
Second XI honours Second XI Championship (2) – 1965, 1980 Second XI Twenty20 (2) – 2019, 2022
Earliest cricket Cricket probably reached Wales and Glamorgan by the end of the 17th century. The earliest known reference to cricket in Glamorgan is a 1771 newspaper report about noise levels at matches in Swansea.
Origin of club The formation of Glamorgan CCC took place on 6 July 1888 at a meeting in the Angel Hotel, Cardiff.
The club competed in the Minor Counties Championship for many years and then applied for first-class status after the First World War.
Glamorgan CCC played its initial first-class match versus Sussex CCC at Cardiff Arms Park on 18–20 May 1921 and thus increased the County Championship to 17 teams. Captained by N.V.H. Riches, Glamorgan won this first match by 23 runs. Only one more victory was achieved that summer; Glamorgan lost 14 games and finished with the wooden spoon.
Club history Glamorgan won the county championship in 1948 under the captaincy of Wilf Wooller, whose advocacy of high fielding standards was the key to beating stronger batting and bowling teams.
Glamorgan was the unintentional venue for a piece of cricket history on 31 August 1968 when, during Glamorgan v Notts at Swansea, Gary Sobers hit all six balls in an over from Malcolm Nash for six.
Glamorgan won the championship again under Tony Lewis in 1969 and Matthew Maynard in 1997. Lewis is the only Glamorgan player to captain England in Tests, when he became the first Glamorgan cricketer to lead an England tour abroad to play series against India and Pakistan in 1972–73. Maynard, who retired at the end of the 2005 season, was one of the most successful batsmen in first class cricket over the previous 20 years. The 2005 captain, off spinner Robert Croft, proved effective on England tours, and was a useful pinch hitter in List A one-day games.
On 20 April 2006, the ECB announced that Glamorgan Cricket had been granted the right to host an Ashes Test against Australia in 2009.
The following month, Cardiff Council’s Planning Committee approved Glamorgan’s plans for the stadium redevelopment, and during the summer, demolition work began at Sophia Gardens.
In mid-September, the old pavilion was used for the final time during Glamorgan’s Championship match against Gloucestershire. By January 2007, construction had begun on the new pavilion complex, the new grandstand on the site of the former pavilion, and the Media Centre complex at the Cathedral Road end.
Building work continued throughout the summer of 2007, during which Glamorgan staged a number of home matches away from Cardiff.
The contractors, Carillion, handed the new stadium over to Glamorgan Cricket on 17 March 2008, and on 9 May, the Welsh county played their inaugural match in the completed stadium — a day‑night fixture against Gloucestershire.
Sophia Gardens became a Test cricket venue in 2009 when the First Test in the Ashes series against Australia was played there.
In 2021 Glamorgan won their first trophy for seventeen years, defeating Durham by 58 runs in the final of the Royal London One-Day Cup. They followed this up with a victory in the same competition in 2024, winning a shortened 20-overs-a-side game against Somerset by 15 runs.
Glamorgan were promoted into Division One of the County Championship in 2025 after finishing runners-up in Division Two.
Players
Current squad No. denotes the player's squad number, as worn on the back of their shirt. denotes players with international caps. denotes a player who has been awarded a county cap. No. Name Nationality Birth date Batting style Bowling style Notes Batters5 Kiran Carlson* Right-handed Right-arm off break Club Captain17 Callum Nicholls Right-handed Right-arm medium 23 Jack Hope-Bell Right-handed Right-arm off break 58 Sean Dickson Right-handed Right-arm medium UK passport55 Asa Tribe Right-handed Right-arm off break 97 Eddie Byrom Left-handed Right-arm leg break Irish passport All-rounders8 Ben Kellaway Right-handed Right-arm off break Slow left-arm orthodox 27 Zain-ul-Hassan Left-handed Right-arm fast-medium 88 Dan Douthwaite Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium Wicket-keepers6 Henry Hurle Right-handed — 28 Will Smale Right-handed — 37 Alex Horton Right-handed — Bowlers3 Mason Crane* Right-handed Right-arm leg break 11 Andy Gorvin Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium Captain (LA)12 Tom Norton Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium 16 Connor O'Riordan Left-handed Right-arm fast-medium UK passport22 Ned Leonard Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium 35 Jamie McIlroy Right-handed Left-arm fast-medium 64 Timm van der Gugten* Right-handed Right-arm fast-medium 77 Romano Franco Left-handed Slow left-arm orthodox Source: Updated: 27 September 2026
Records
Over 16,000 First Class Runs For Glamorgan
Player RunsAlan Jones 34,056Emrys Davies 26,102Matthew Maynard 22,764Gilbert Parkhouse 22,619Hugh Morris 18,520Arnold Dyson 17,920Bernard Hedges 17,733Allan Watkins 17,419Peter Walker 16,510
Most first-class wickets for Glamorgan Qualification – 800 wickets
Player WicketsDon Shepherd 2,174Jack Mercer 1,460Johnnie Clay 1,292Robert Croft 1,032Malcolm Nash 991Frank Ryan 913Wilf Wooller 887Emrys Davies 885Steve Watkin 861
Team totals Highest total for: 795/5d v. Leicestershire, Leicester, 2022 Highest total against: 750 by Northamptonshire, Cardiff, 2019 Lowest total for: 22 v. Lancashire, Liverpool, 1924 Lowest total against: 33 by Leicestershire, Ebbw Vale, 1965
Batting Highest score: 410* Sam Northeast, Leicester, 2022
Best partnership for each wicket Wkt Score Batsmen Against Location Year 1st 374 Matthew Elliott and Steve James Sussex Colwyn Bay 2000 2nd 328 Eddie Byrom and Colin Ingram Sussex Cardiff 2022 3rd 313 Emrys Davies and Willie Jones Essex Brentwood 1948 4th 425* Adrian Dale and Viv Richards Middlesex Sophia Gardens 1993 5th 307 Kiran Carlson and Chris Cooke Northamptonshire Sophia Gardens 2021 6th 461* Sam Northeast and Chris Cooke Leicestershire Grace Road 2022 7th 211 Tony Cottey and Ottis Gibson Leicestershire Swansea 1996 8th 202 Dai Davies and Joe Hills Sussex Eastbourne 1928 9th 203* Joe Hills and Johnnie Clay Worcestershire Swansea 1929 10th 143 Terry Davies and Simon Daniels Gloucestershire Swansea 1982Source:
Bowling Best bowling: 10/51 J. Mercer v. Worcestershire, Worcester, 1936 Best match bowling: 17/212 J. C. Clay v. Worcestershire, Swansea, 1937
Lists of players and club captains List of Glamorgan CCC players List of Glamorgan cricket captains
References
Further reading H S Altham, A History of Cricket, Volume 1 (to 1914), George Allen & Unwin, 1962 Derek Birley, A Social History of English Cricket, Aurum, 1999 Rowland Bowen, Cricket: A History of its Growth and Development, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970 Roy Webber, The Playfair Book of Cricket Records, Playfair Books, 1951 Playfair Cricket Annual – various editions Wisden Cricketers' Almanack – various editions
External links