He was a fast-medium bowler who captured over 500 wickets in his career, and also a useful enough batsman almost to rank as an all-rounder.
He was also a fine rugby player, appearing at county level and in schoolboy internationals.
Gibson made a promising beginning in first-class cricket in 1957, taking ten wickets in a match against Gloucestershire, in only his second appearance for the first team and on his debut in the County Championship.
In spite of this early success, with Alec Bedser and Peter Loader almost ever present as the opening bowlers, he made only one further appearance that season.
However he could reflect that he had been a part, if a minor one, of the Surrey side that had won the Championship for an unprecedented sixth season in succession.
With Alec Bedser having to miss the first half of the season through pneumonia,[2] Gibson had more opportunities.
This may be at least partly explained by the fact that 1959 was the driest and sunniest summer for some years, so that conditions were more in favour of the batsmen.
When Surrey reached the Final against Yorkshire in 1965 and were heavily defeated, he took 1/66 in the 13 overs that bowlers were then permitted, and scored a duck.