Barney Peter Gibson is an English cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

er who plays as a wicket-keeper

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 guarded by the batsman currently on strike...

 for Yorkshire

Yorkshire County Cricket Club

Yorkshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Yorkshire as one of the 18 major county clubs which make up the English and Welsh domestic cricket structure....

. He is the youngest cricketer to play first-class cricket

First-class cricket

First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...

 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 attends Crawshaw School

Crawshaw School

Crawshaw School is a secondary school in Pudsey, West Yorkshire, England. It gained specialist humanities status in 2005. The 2011 Ofsted inspection report gave the school an overall grade 2 ....

 in Pudsey

Pudsey

Pudsey is a market town in West Yorkshire, England. Once an independent town, it was incorporated into the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds in 1974, and is located midway between Bradford and Leeds city centres. It has a population of 32,391....

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

Leeds United A.F.C.

Leeds United Association Football Club are an English professional association football club based in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, who play in the Football League Championship, the second tier of the English football league system...

, whose books he had been on between the ages of eight and twelve, before giving up football to concentrate on cricket.

Club cricket

Gibson plays his club cricket for Bradford Cricket League

Bradford Cricket League

The Bradford Cricket League is an amateur cricket competition centred in Bradford, West Yorkshire...

 side Pudsey Congs, home club of former England batsman Herbert Sutcliffe

Herbert Sutcliffe

Herbert Sutcliffe was an English professional cricketer who represented Yorkshire and England as an opening batsman. Apart from one match in 1945, his first-class career spanned the period between the two World Wars...

, 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 University Centre of Cricketing Excellence

Durham University Centre of Cricketing Excellence

Durham MCC University is a cricket coaching centre based at Durham University in Durham, County Durham, England and the name under which the university's cricket team plays....

 (Durham UCCE) on 27 April 2011 at the age of 15 years, 27 days beating the previous record held for 144 years by Charles Young

Charles Young (cricketer)

Charles Robertson Young was an English cricketer. Young was a left-handed batsman who bowled left-arm medium pace. He was born in Dharwar in the Kingdom of Mysore, then in the British Raj....

 who had represented Hampshire

Hampshire County Cricket Club

Hampshire County Cricket Club represents the historic county of Hampshire in cricket's County Championship. The club was founded in 1863 as a successor to the Hampshire county cricket teams and has played at the Antelope Ground from then until 1885, before moving to the County Ground where it...

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

Jonathan Bairstow

Jonathan 'Jonny' Marc Bairstow is an English cricketer, who plays first-class cricket for Yorkshire. A right-hand batsman and wicket-keeper he is the son of former Yorkshire and England keeper David Bairstow....

 and Gerard Brophy

Gerard Brophy

Gerard Louis Brophy is a first-class cricketer, presently contracted to Yorkshire. He has also played for Ireland, Free State, Northamptonshire and Transvaal in a well travelled career....

, the two first-choice wicket-keepers, who were rested by Yorkshire. In order 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

Oliver Hannon-Dalby

Oliver James Hannon-Dalby is an English cricketer, playing for Yorkshire County Cricket Club. He is a left-handed batsman and a right arm medium-fast bowler....

, David Wainwright

David Wainwright (Yorkshire cricketer)

David John Wainwright is an English first-class cricketer, who played for Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 2004 and 2011...

 and Ajmal Shahzad

Ajmal Shahzad

Ajmal Shahzad is an English cricketer who plays for Yorkshire County Cricket Club. A right-handed batsman and right-arm fast-medium bowler, he made his international debut in a Twenty20 International for England in February 2010...

.