Gloucestershire stars of yesteryear will be at the Cheltenham Cricket Festival on Thursday to celebrate the club’s greatest season in their 155-year history.

Twenty-five years ago the club won the one-day treble, winning two Lord’s finals and the 45-over Sunday League, and their captain back in 2000, Mark Alleyne, has organised a celebration dinner to mark that stunning campaign.

Alleyne, who is now the club’s head coach, steered Gloucestershire to a seven-wicket win over Glamorgan in the Benson and Hedges Cup final and a 22-run success against Warwickshire in the NatWest Trophy final, a match that was decided by the Duckworth-Lewis method.

They followed up by winning the 45-overs Norwich Union National League, finishing two points clear of Yorkshire and Northamptonshire after winning nine of their 16 games.

They were remarkable times for Gloucestershire and lifelong supporter John Margetts, who has been watching the club for 70 years, recalled: “It was very special.”

Indeed it was. It was often said back then that the team were greater than the parts but any team which included Ian Harvey and Jack Russell was always going to be hunting for trophies.

All-rounder Harvey, now 53, made an immediate impact after joining the club, helping the club to win two trophies in his first season in 1999.

“He was a proper cricketer,” said Margetts, a former captain of Cheltenham club Nomads who went on to umpire in the County League for many years.

“He brought things to the team that we’d never seen before – the slower ball, the knuckle ball. Everybody does it now, but he was the first.”

Harvey took 5-34 in the final win over Glamorgan and he picked up 34 wickets at 10.94 in 14 games in the Sunday League.

He also hit 47 off 60 balls, batting at three, in the final win over Warwickshire, a match which saw Russell batting at four.

The former England wicketkeeper’s major contributions were in the field, of course, with Margetts saying: “Jack used to say that we strangled teams and again that was something new.

“We never used to give any runs away, we were superb in the field, we could defend almost any total.”

Skipper Alleyne pulled it all together – “He was brilliant,” said Margetts – but there were many others who played their parts, players such as Kim Barnett, Mike Smith, Jon Lewis, Martyn Ball and Jeremy Snape.

All five won full England call-ups during their careers – Barnett and Smith prior to 1997 - but some of the unsung players such as Tim Hancock and James Averis also enjoyed starring roles during that stellar season 25 years ago.

Hancock, opening the batting, made 60 against Glamorgan, and then claimed 2-34 with his medium-pacers against Warwickshire a couple of months later.

Seamer Averis, meanwhile, took 29 wickets in 16 Sunday League matches at 18.51, and Margetts added: “He was the lesser of all the players in terms of stardom but he just turned up and did his job.”

As well as Alleyne, some of the players expected to attend the dinner, which is being held tomorrow evening in a marquee at Cheltenham College, include Russell, Harvey, Barnett, Matt Windows, Ball, Lewis and Smith.