William Geoffrey Keighley OAM (10 January 1925 – 14 June 2005) was an English

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...

, businessman,

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

er, farmer, grazier and legislator. Keighley was born in

Nice Nice ( ; ) is a city in and the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative city limits, with a population of nearly one million Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...

, West Yorkshire and

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. He was educated at the Tudor House preparatory school in

, Eton and

Trinity College, Oxford Trinity College (full name: The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope (Knight)) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in E ...

. He received private coaching from the Yorkshire and England cricketer

Herbert Sutcliffe Herbert Sutcliffe (24 November 1894 – 22 January 1978) was an English Professionalism#Sports, professional cricketer who represented Yorkshire County Cricket Club, Yorkshire and England national cricket team, England as an opening batsman. A ...

(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 The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

(RAF), he was trained as a

navigator A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's prim ...

, but never flew on operations. Upon returning to Oxford, he was awarded a

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. As a stylish right-handed batsman, he scored 105 versus

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

in his second match, and 99 versus

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in 1947. His highest innings was 110 versus

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

Headingley Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingley ...

in 1951. He held the second wicket partnership of 226 (with Tony Pawson) for Varsity matches. In 1947, he became the thirty first non-native cricketer to represent

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

, although at the time the club did not know that he had been born abroad. Keighley declined the

captaincy A captaincy ( , , ) is a historical administrative division of the former Spanish colonies, Spanish and Portuguese colonies, Portuguese colonial empires. It was instituted as a method of organization, directly associated with the home-rule admin ...

of the

Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...

(MCC),

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

and

. He played as an

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

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

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional association for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practice as a barrister in England and Wa ...

as a

and he married

the Honourable ''The Honourable'' (Commonwealth English) or ''The Honorable'' (American English; American and British English spelling differences#-our, -or, see spelling differences) (abbreviation: ''Hon.'', ''Hon'ble'', or variations) is an honorific Style ...

Olivia Lubbock (a sister of the 4th Baron Avebury) at St George's Church, Hanover Square in London on 10 May 1951. They settled in

Temora, New South Wales Temora () is a town in the north-east of the Riverina area of New South Wales, south-west of the state capital, Sydney. At the the population of Temora was 4,016. Temora was named by John Donald McCansh. In September 1880 he told the Warwick ...

, Australia and had two sons and two daughters. The marriage was dissolved in 1974. He married his second wife Karin Spiegel in 1974. He became a member of the

New South Wales Legislative Council The New South Wales Legislative Council, often referred to as the upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales. Along with the New South Wales Legislative As ...

. He pursued a wide range of hobbies and sporting interests. He was awarded the

Medal of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of then ...

(OAM) in 2002, and died in

Sutton Forest, New South Wales Sutton Forest is a small village in the Southern Highlands, New South Wales, Southern Highlands, New South Wales, Australia in Wingecarribee Shire. It is located 5 km southwest of Moss Vale, New South Wales, Moss Vale on the Illawarra Highw ...

in June 2005, aged 80.Obituary
in ''The Daily Telegraph'' (London), 2005

References

External links

at Cricket Archive
The Peerage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keighley, Geoffrey 1925 births 2005 deaths People educated at Eton College Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford Members of the Inner Temple English cricketers Oxford University cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Minor Counties cricketers Yorkshire cricketers Free Foresters cricketers London Counties cricketers 20th-century English farmers Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council National Party of Australia members of the Parliament of New South Wales Honorary recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia 20th-century Australian politicians 20th-century English lawyers British expatriates in France Royal Air Force personnel of World War II English barristers