Geoffrey Keighley

Who was Geoffrey Keighley?

William Geoffrey Keighley OAM was an English barrister, businessman, first-class cricketer, farmer, grazier and legislator.

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. He captained the Eton XI, before going up to Oxford. After being called up by the Royal Air Force, he was trained as a navigator, but never flew on operations.

Upon returning to Oxford, he was awarded a blue. As a stylish right-handed batsman, he scored 105 versus South Africa in his second match, and 99 versus Cambridge University in 1947. His highest innings was 110 versus Surrey at Headingley in 1951. He held the second wicket partnership of 226 for Varsity matches.

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. Keighley declined the captaincy of the 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.