Barney Peter Gibson (born 31 March 1996) is a former English

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who played as a

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...

for

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

. He is the youngest cricketer to play

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

in England making his debut for Yorkshire in April 2011 aged 15 years and 27 days.

Early life

Gibson was born in Leeds, England and attended Crawshaw School in

Pudsey Pudsey is a market town in the City of Leeds, City of Leeds Borough in West Yorkshire, England. It is located midway between Bradford, Bradford city centre and Leeds city centre. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of ...

. Before making his first-class debut, he represented Yorkshire County Cricket Club at Under-11, Under-12 and Under-13 levels. He had also played at schoolboy level for

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

, whose books he had been on between the ages of eight and twelve, before giving up

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

to concentrate on cricket.

Playing career

Club cricket

Gibson plays his club cricket for

Bradford Cricket League The Bradford Premier League (currently known as the Gordon Rigg Bradford Premier League for sponsorship reasons) is an amateur cricket competition centred in Bradford, West Yorkshire. It has been described as "arguably England's strongest amate ...

side Pudsey Congs, becoming the first team wicket-keeper at the age of 14.

First-class career

Gibson made his debut for Yorkshire in a three-day match against the Durham MCC University (Durham MCCU) on 27 April 2011 at the age of 15 years, 27 days beating the previous record held for 144 years by

Charles Young Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

who had represented

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

at the age of 15 years, 131 days in 1867. He was selected ahead of

Jonny Bairstow Jonathan Marc Bairstow (born 26 September 1989) is an English cricketer who plays internationally for England in all formats. In domestic cricket, he represents Yorkshire, and has played in multiple Twenty20 leagues, including for Sunrisers Hy ...

and

Gerard Brophy Gerard Louis Brophy (born 26 November 1975, Welkom, Orange Free State, South Africa) is a first-class cricketer, latterly contracted to Yorkshire. He has also played for Ireland, Free State, Northamptonshire and Transvaal in a well travelled c ...

, the two first-choice wicket-keepers, who were rested by Yorkshire. To make his debut, his school gave him permission to miss lessons. Gibson was glad to avoid school that day, stating: He made two catches in the first innings and four in the second innings of his debut match, two each off the bowling of Oliver Hannon-Dalby, David Wainwright and

Ajmal Shahzad Ajmal Shahzad (born 27 July 1985) is an English cricket coach and retired cricketer. As a right-arm fast bowler, he played first class cricket for five counties Yorkshire, Lancashire, Nottinghamshire, Sussex and Leicestershire between 2004 and ...

. On 3 April 2015, it was announced that Gibson had left Yorkshire and retired from cricket to pursue other career options.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gibson, Barney 1996 births Living people Cricketers from Leeds Yorkshire cricketers English cricketers Cricketers from Pudsey 21st-century English cricketers Wicket-keepers