Summer Sports - Cricket


Many must have voiced that sentiment about the doyen of cricket groundsmanship Keith Boyce. A pioneer and original thinker, he is renowned among cricket’s top order for consistently conjuring up first- class wickets. But there’s plenty more besides that to acknowledge about a legend and masterful man manager, reports Greg Rhodes


M


arking fifty-eight years in groundsmanship is no mean accomplishment, even by this industry’s record of long service. Keith Boyce appears


just as up for the challenge as in his earliest days working within the sport that ingrains his existence. The 80-year-old was a keen batsman and


wicketkeeper and started out volunteering for grounds duties at local cricket clubs in North Yorkshire before he was headhunted for the big one. Keith relives his glowing Headingley days


from his armchair, positioned to allow him to gaze into the back garden at his pond, dovecote and squirrel feeders. “I love birds and was upset when a hawk discovered the


doves and picked them off one by one,” he tells me as we settle in. The plastic heron, positioned to ward off


raids from the real thing, was doomed to failure too, he notes. “Dragonflies skirt the water regularly in summer, so there’s still much to marvel at”, he adds. With roe deer and rabbits threatening his garden foliage, Keith may have to suffer for his love of wildlife, but there’s one aspect of life over which he can reign supreme - the Richmond Oval in the North Leeds village of Adel, West Yorkshire, which his bungalow overlooks. New Rover Cricket Club built the bungalow specially for him when he took up residence as their groundsman in 2000, along with a treasury of cherished cricketing keepsakes he


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