Geoffrey Keighley

William Geoffrey Keighley

Keighley was born in Nice, France. His family had business interests in Bradford, West Yorkshire and New South Wales. He was educated at the Tudor House preparatory school in New South Wales, Eton and Trinity College, Oxford.

He received private coaching from the Yorkshire and England cricketer Herbert Sutcliffe (who was a friend of his mother's from Bradford). He captained the Eton XI, before going up to Oxford. After being called up by the Royal Air Force (RAF), he was trained as a navigator, but never flew on operations.

Upon returning to Oxford, he was awarded a

In 1947, he became the thirty first non-native cricketer to represent Yorkshire, although at the time the club did not know that he had been born abroad.^{[citation needed]} Keighley declined the captaincy of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), Middlesex and Yorkshire. He played as an amateur in 65 first-class matches, before his retirement in 1951. He scored 2,539 runs, with two centuries, at an average of 27.01. He bowled occasional right-arm medium pace but did not take a wicket.

He was admitted to the

He became a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council. He pursued a wide range of hobbies and sporting interests. He was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2002, and died in Sutton Forest, New South Wales in June 2005, aged 80.^[3]

References