Harold Harry Ian Haywood Gibbons (8 October 1904 – 16 February 1973), sometimes known as "Doc" Gibbons, was an English

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 ...

er: a right-handed opening batsman and occasional right-arm bowler who was the first man to win a

county cap In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the ea ...

for

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

, as well as a reliable fielder in the deep. Gibbons made his first-class debut for Worcestershire against the touring

New Zealanders New Zealanders ( mi, Tāngata Aotearoa), colloquially known as Kiwis (), are people associated with New Zealand, sharing a common history, culture, and language (New Zealand English). People of various ethnicities and national origins are citiz ...

at New Road in June 1927, making 19 and 17, and taking 2-27 in the first innings, which was to remain his best bowling. He retained his place for the rest of the season, but did not set the world alight. However, the next year was another matter, as he scored four hundreds, including an unbeaten 200 against the

West Indians A West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the West Indies (the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago). For more than 100 years the words ''West Indian'' specifically described natives of the West Indies, but by 1661 Europeans had begun to use it ...

in July. In this year, he was capped by his county: the first cap Worcestershire had awarded. He continued to play a key role for his county up until the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, forging a very useful opening partnership with

Cyril Walters Cyril Frederick Walters (28 August 1905 – 23 December 1992) was a Welsh first-class cricketer who had most of his success after leaving Glamorgan to do duty as captain-secretary of Worcestershire. In this role he developed his batting to such ...

in the early 1930s. Most years Gibbons

averaged In mathematics and statistics, the arithmetic mean ( ) or arithmetic average, or just the ''mean'' or the ''average'' (when the context is clear), is the sum of a collection of numbers divided by the count of numbers in the collection. The colle ...

in the thirties, and in

1933 Events January * January 11 – Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand. * January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independence, against the wis ...

he passed 2,000 runs in a season for the first time. Then in

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 1934 Nepal–Bihar earthquake, Nepal–Bihar earthquake strik ...

he had the best summer of his career, scoring 2,654 runs at 52.03 with eight centuries; this remains the highest season's aggregate for the county. Indeed, a purple patch in late May and early June of that year produced successive scores of 93, 7, 88, 104, 157, 70 *, 100 and 129. Never again did Gibbons quite reach the heights of 1934, although he did pass 2,000 runs once more, when averaging 43.26 in

1938 Events January * January 1 ** The Constitution of Estonia#Third Constitution (de facto 1938–1940, de jure 1938–1992), new constitution of Estonia enters into force, which many consider to be the ending of the Era of Silence and the a ...

. The following year he recorded his career-best innings when he hit 212 not out against

Northamptonshire Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...

, but the

intervened, and though he returned to play three matches for Worcestershire in

1946 Events January * January 6 - The 1946 North Vietnamese parliamentary election, first general election ever in Vietnam is held. * January 7 – The Allies recognize the Austrian republic with its 1937 borders, and divide the country into f ...

, he was not a success and his career came to an end. Gibbons scored first-class hundreds against all the other counties with the single exception of

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

. Nevertheless, he was never capped by

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, and had to content himself with appearances for the Players and the

North of England Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North Country, or simply the North, is the northern area of England. It broadly corresponds to the former borders of Angle Northumbria, the Anglo-Scandinavian Kingdom of Jorvik, and the ...

, both in

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhanov, J ...

, as well as a

benefit season A benefit season is a method of financially rewarding professional cricketers that is used by English county cricket teams to compensate long serving players. The system originated in the 19th century to help out professional cricketers who were ...

ten years later. He died in

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Englan ...

at the age of 68.

Notes

External links

*
Statistical summary
from CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Gibbons, Harold English cricketers Worcestershire cricketers Players cricketers 1904 births 1973 deaths English cricketers of 1919 to 1945 North v South cricketers