The Cheltenham Cricket Festival is the jewel in the crown of the town’s sporting summer.

That’s certainly the view of big Gloucestershire fan Peter Jubb, who this year will be celebrating his 50^th anniversary at the showpiece occasion.

“I first went to the cricket festival in 1973,” said Jubb, who is now 60. “Like so many people I was introduced to it by my father.

“He was a Yorkshireman and moved down to Cheltenham for work. He loved his cricket, I was still a pupil at Dunalley Primary School when I first went to the Festival.

“I remember Ron Nicholls opening the batting for Gloucestershire and many years later I played in the same team as him for Cheltenham.

“But that period will be remembered as the time of Sadiq, Zaheer and Mike Procter, it was a ridiculous time.”

It certainly was and it was certainly a great time to be a supporter of Gloucestershire as they won two showpiece Lord’s cup finals in the mid-70s – the Gillette Cup in 1973 and the Benson & Hedges Cup in 1977 – winning many new fans along the way.

New and not so new fans are counting down the days to this year’s Cheltenham Cricket Festival, of course, which gets under way with a four-day County Championship Division Two game against Glamorgan on Thursday 20^th July.

A second championship game against Worcestershire starts on Wednesday 26^th July and there are also One-Day Cup games against Derbyshire (1^st August) and Northamptonshire (4^th August), plus a National Counties fixture against Wiltshire on 30th July.

The T20 Blast will have finished only a matter of days before the first ball is bowled at this year’s Festival and Jubb, who has held a number of high-profile positions within Gloucestershire over the years, is looking forward to seeing the county play some red-ball cricket.

“There’s a great ambience about the Cheltenham Cricket Festival,” continued Jubb. “I’m not convinced that the T20 fitted Cheltenham, Tina Turner blaring out when a wicket fell didn’t quite sit right.”

The quickfire format that is dominating the game more and more is targeted at a younger audience, of course, but one of the lasting attractions of the Cheltenham Cricket Festival – it’s been going since 1872 – is that, whatever the format, it appeals to people of all ages from all walks of life.

“It is very important to Gloucestershire cricket, that is where they get their support,” said Jubb, a former chairman of the Gloucestershire Cricket Board who served on the executive committee of the county cricket club.

“There are 14 county championship games, seven of which are at home and two of those are at Cheltenham. It’s the same for next year, but with all the talk about the structure of cricket, after that, who knows?”

That will be a concern for many, of course, and Jubb is certainly one of those hoping that the Festival retains its prime-time slot in Gloucestershire’s cricket season.

“It’s the first two weeks of the school summer holidays,” he said. “When I was working the first thing I did was book those two weeks off. Some people went to Barcelona, I went to the cricket festival.

“It’s a social event, I often don’t see people for 350 days and then see them for 15 days in a row. All the stories get exaggerated each year!

“As a boy you maybe don’t appreciate it as much, you maybe take it for granted, but as you get older you realise how important it is. I’m really looking forward to this year’s festival, I won’t miss a day.”

Jubb has recently been made a vice-president of Gloucestershire and he said: “It’s quite an honour. People like Jack Russell, Courtney Walsh, Sadiq, Zaheer and Proccy have all been made vice-presidents.”

All five are Gloucestershire greats, of course, and Jubb, who is a life member of Cheltenham Cricket Club, said: “I remember Mike Procter taking an lbw hat-trick bowling around the wicket against Yorkshire, that was a real highlight.

“Then there was the game against Hampshire in the mid-80s when we were going for the championship. We left Hampshire something like 120 to win but Walsh and Syd Lawrence went through them.

“They were bowling at full tilt, the batsmen were being caught at third man and fine leg!”

Gloucestershire, under the captaincy of David Graveney, twice went close to winning the championship in the mid-1980s, something the great Kent side of the 1970s, which included the likes of Colin Cowdrey, Alan Knott, Derek Underwood, Asif Iqbal and Brian Luckhurst, managed on a couple of occasions.

Jubb remembers getting Cowdrey’s autograph back in the day, but great though that team undoubtedly were, they still came second to Gloucestershire in that Lord’s final in 1977!

That game, and many more, will be talked about at this year’s Cheltenham Festival, for sure, and Jubb, like many others, will enjoy every minute of it.

As he says: “The Cheltenham Cricket Festival is an important cog in life’s rich tapestry.”