Paul Anthony Gibb, who died suddenly at Guildford on December 7 at the age of 64, was a cricketer who should be judged by the figures he achieved. It would have needed a shrewd critic to discern, when watching him play a long innings, that he was more than a determined and solid University and County batsman. Never did one catch a glimpse of that spark of genius which normally marks the Test player. The figures tell a very different story. In his first innings for Yorkshire he made 157 not out. For his four University matches he averaged 54, making a century in his last year and in the previous year being stupidly run out for 87. His average for his eight Tests was 44.69. In his first, against South Africa, he scored 93 and 106; in the final Test of that series 120. In the first Test after the War, against India, he made 60 and helped Hardstaff to add 182 badly needed runs for the fifth wicket. In his early days a tendency to overdo the hook was often fatal, but once he had conquered this it was indeed a problem to get him out. He was quite happy to rely on his immensely strong back play and to let the runs come at their own rate: his patience seemed inexhaustible. Two Gibbs on a side could have been difficult and three intolerable: one often invaluable.

With his wicket-keeping it was different: not even his best friends would have claimed that he was anywhere near the best of his day. Yet after playing purely as a batsman for Cambridge in his first year while S. C. Griffith, a far better performer, kept and keeping himself in his second year when Griffith was injured, in his third year he was given the preference completely and Griffith did not play at all. This aroused considerable criticism, but not as much as when in the next season, Ames being injured, Gibb was selected for the third and fourth Tests over the heads of a number of better keepers including Arthur Wood, who was almost always preferred to him by Yorkshire. In fact the third Test was completely washed out by rain and by the fourth Gibb was injured and so had to wait for the South African tour that winter before actually taking the field for England.

On that tour he was second-string to Ames, but in 1946 he kept in the first two Tests against India and the following winter in the First Test in Australia, before on each occasion making way for Evans.

To summarise his career, he was in the XI at St Edward's, Oxford, played for Cambridge from 1935 to 1938 and for Yorkshire from 1935 to 1946. After returning that winter from Australia, he was seen no more in first-class cricket until 1951 when he appeared for Essex as a professional, the first cricket blue ever to turn professional. Though now no longer a candidate for Tests, playing for Essex for six seasons he made a thousand runs in four of them, besides proving a serviceable keeper. He dropped out of the Essex side in 1956 and from 1957 to 1966 was a first-class umpire. At the time of his death he had for some years been a bus-driver in Guildford.

P. A. GIBB

CAREER FIGURES

*Signifies not out

Season	Matches	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	100s	50s	Average	Catches	Stumpings
In England
1934	1	2	0	16	9	0	0	8.00	0	0
1935	15	24	2	539	157*	1	1	24.50	16	5
1936	15	27	4	485	51*	0	1	21.08	16	5
1937	17	33	3	780	113	1	5	26.00	17	10
1938	24	37	3	1,658	204	4	8	48.76	24	19
1946	16	25	2	692	104	1	5	30.08	9	7
1951	29	46	0	1,330	141	4	6	28.91	49	12
1952	37	56	2	1,519	132	1	8	28.12	70	17
1953	31	52	3	1,342	138	1	6	27.38	67	17
1954	23	39	2	934	131	2	1	25.24	42	5
1955	31	58	5	1,223	77	0	5	23.07	52	11
1956	5	9	0	145	43	0	0	16.11	4	3
In South Africa
1938-39	12	17	0	738	120	2	3	43.41	10	1
In Australia
1946-47	9	14	1	199	37*	0	0	15.30	10	1
In Jamaica
1935-36	3	5	1	126	58	0	1	31.50	2	0
In India
1937-38	12	18	3	349	136*	1	0	23.26	21	1
1953-54	13	17	2	445	154	1	1	29.66	11	9
Totals	293	479	33	12,520	204	19	51	28.07	420	123

TEST CAREER

	Tests	Inns	NO	Runs	HS	100s	50s	Average	Catches	Stumpings
v South Africa 1938-39	5	8	0	473	120	2	2	59.12	0	0
v India 1946	2	3	0	84	60	0	1	28.00	2	1
v Australia 1946-47	1	2	0	24	13	0	0	12.00	1	0
Totals	8	13	0	581	120	2	3	44.69	3	1

CENTURIES (19)

*Signifies not out

157*	For Yorkshire v Nottinghamshire at Sheffield, 1935.
113	for Cambridge University v Hampshire at Basingstoke, 1937.
136*	for Lord Tennyson's Team v WISCA and Gujarat at Ahmedabad, 1937-38.
204	for Cambridge University v Free Foresters at Cambridge, 1938.
141	for Cambridge University v Northamptonshire at Cambridge, 1938.
133	for Cambridge University v Glamorgan at Swansea, 1938.
122	for Cambridge University v Oxford University at Lord's, 1938.
120	for England v South Africa at Durban, 1938-39.
106	for England v South Africa at Johannesburg, 1938-39.
104	for Yorkshire v Warwickshire at Edgbaston, 1946.
141	for Essex v Kent at Blackheath, 1951.
118	for Essex v Nottinghamshire at Clacton, 1951.
138	for Essex v Northamptonshire at Northampton, 1951.
107	for Essex v Yorkshire at Brentwood, 1951.
132	for Essex v Northamptonshire at Northampton, 1952.
138	for Essex v Middlesex at Westcliff, 1953.
154	for Commonwealth Team in India v Assam Governor's XI at Jorhat, 1953-54.
131	for Essex v Worcestershire at Brentwood, 1954.
106	for Essex v Canadians at Clacton, 1954.

Wisden Cricketers' Almanack

• When time really dragged (Apr 0, 1982)
  
• Paul Gibb

Mar 0, 1939 The MCC team which toured South Africa unbeaten in 1938-39 © Wisden Cricket Monthly

Paul Gibb batting © The Cricketer International

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