This is the third in an occasional series on players who have represented both Yorkshire and at least one other county but not including overseas players. Paul Dyson looks at the seven cricketers who played for the White Rose county as well as Essex. They occur in chronological order and the focus is on each player’s career with Essex, their time with Yorkshire being detailed in various publications.
Paul Gibb had a most unusual career. He played for Yorkshire after making his first-class debut for Scotland, scored a century in his first game for Yorkshire as well as for England, left the game then returned to it to join Essex and become the first Oxford or Cambridge Blue to turn professional. When Gibb joined Essex in 1951 he experienced his first full season since 1938. Having lost his England wicket-keeping place to Godfrey Evans in Australia on the 1946/47 tour he played in no senior cricket in any of the five succeeding summers. However, he ended his first season back with over 1,300 runs, including four centuries, and more than 60 dismissals and it was as if he had never been away, being rewarded with his county cap. He topped these totals in the following season and scored at least 1,200 runs and made at least 60 dismissals in each of his four full seasons with his new county. By 1956, though, his form was not what it had been and after the early part of the that season he lost his place to Brian Taylor and left the game shortly before his 43rd birthday. His final tallies for Essex were, in 145 matches, 6,328 runs and 336 dismissals. His top score of 141 came against Kent at Blackheath in 1951. He became a noted umpire in 1957, travelling the circuit in a caravan, and played a leading role in the throwing controversy of the period.
