Geoff Keith

Geoffrey Leyden Keith (19 November 1937 — 26 December 1975) was an English cricketer and cricket coach. As a player, he played first-class cricket for Somerset, Hampshire and in South Africa with Western Province. Beginning his career with Somerset in 1959, Keith moved to Hampshire in 1962 where he made sixty appearances in first-class cricket, and played in Hampshire's inaugural List A one-day match in the 1963 Gillette Cup. He moved to South Africa in 1967, where he took up coaching. He returned to Hampshire in 1971 to become their coach, a role he maintained until his death from leukemia in December 1975.

Cricket career Somerset Keith was born in Winchester in November 1937. He grew up in the West Country, where he played his early club cricket for Taunton Deane. Keith made his debut in first-class cricket for Somerset against Cambridge University at Fenner's in May 1959, with him making a further appearance that season against the touring Indians. He made his first County Championship appearance in the 1961 County Championship against Yorkshire. That season he made ten first-class appearances during the first half of the season, He featured just three times in the 1961 County Championship, In fifteen first-class appearances for Somerset, he scored 319 runs at an average of 12.76, but never passed fifty.

Move to Hampshire In April 1962, Keith joined his native county, Hampshire. He played once for Hampshire in 1962, against Oxford University at Oxford, He played only three first-class matches in 1963, but did play in Hampshire's inaugural List A one-day match against Derbyshire in the Gillette Cup. In 1964, long-standing opening batsman Jimmy Gray was available for only the second half of the season, and Keith stood in for him for the first two months of the season, opening with Roy Marshall, though he failed to retain his place for long once Gray was available again. In seventeen first-class matches that season, he scored 653 runs at an average of 21.76. He made a further two one-day appearances in the 1964 Gillette Cup, against Wiltshire and Warwickshire. For Hampshire, he made 60 first-class appearances, scoring 1,775 runs at an average of 21.38. In South Africa, Keith made two first-class appearances for Western Province against Orange Free State and Natal B in the 1968–69 Currie Cup, During the latter part of the 1974 season, he was diagnosed with leukemia. He succumbed to the disease on 26 December 1975, aged 38. He was succeeded as Hampshire coach by Peter Sainsbury.