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15-year-old breaks record as youngest cricketer

DURHAM, England - Barney Gibson skipped science and religion classes this week to concentrate on history — making his own as the youngest first-class cricketer in England.

By (AP)

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Published: Thu 28 Apr 2011, 8:28 PM

Last updated: Mon 6 Apr 2015, 6:29 PM

Aged 15 years and 27 days, the wicketkeeper broke a 144-year record after being given permission to take time off from school. He started Yorkshire’s three-day county championship match against Durham University on Wednesday.

Gibson surpassed the record set by Charles Young in 1867, when Hampshire selected him at 15 years and 131 days old, according to ESPN CricInfo’s statistics database.

“It feels excellent to have gone into the history books,” Gibson said. “I was astonished when I heard I was playing for the first team and I just thought, ‘Right it’s time to step up to the mark.’”

“On a normal Wednesday (at school) I would have had science three times, maths and RE (religious education) so it was not a bad day to miss. The school set me work to do while I am here so I will have to get cracking on some business studies tonight.”

Gibson’s first major impact on his debut came in the 10th over, when he took a diving catch off Oliver Hannon-Dalby.

“For the first couple of overs I felt a bit shaky, but then I just tried to be myself and do what I normally do — just stand there and catch it,” Gibson said.

He claimed a second catch off the spin of David Wainwright after spending 81.2 overs in the field.

“We like to give our young players a chance, but they have to be good enough and Barney’s proved he’s good enough at this moment in time,” Yorkshire’s director of cricket, Martyn Moxon, said. “His first catch today was outstanding and would have been a good catch for a keeper of any age.

“He’ll not have kept to that kind of pace very much, but he’s not fazed by the occasion or the publicity he’s now getting. For someone so young he’s very levelheaded.”