Keith Andrew Arnold (born 27 May 1960) is a former English

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 one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

er. Arnold was a left-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, the ...

who bowled right-arm

fast-medium Fast bowling (also referred to as pace bowling) is one of two main approaches to bowling in the sport of cricket, the other being spin bowling. Practitioners of pace bowling are usually known as ''fast'' bowlers, ''quicks'', or ''pacemen''. T ...

. He was born at

Solihull Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blythe i ...

, Warwickshire. Arnold made his debut for

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the north west of South East England. It is a mainly rural county, with its largest settlement being the city of Oxford. The county is a centre of research and development, primarily ...

in the 1980

Minor Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...

against

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

. Arnold played

Minor counties The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

cricket for Oxfordshire from 1980 to 2010, which included 208 Minor Counties Championship matches and 47

MCCA Knockout Trophy The National Counties Cricket Association Knockout Cup was started in 1983 as a knockout one-day competition for the National Counties in English cricket. At first it was known as the ''English Industrial Estates Cup'', before being called the ...

matches. He made his

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

debut against

Glamorgan , HQ = Cardiff , Government = Glamorgan County Council (1889–1974) , Origin= , Code = GLA , CodeName = Chapman code , Replace = * West Glamorgan * Mid Glamorgan * South Glamorgan , Motto ...

in the

1980 Gillette Cup The 1980 Gillette Cup was an English limited overs county cricket tournament held between 2 July and 6 September 1980. It was the eighteenth and final Gillette Cup before it was renamed as the NatWest Trophy in 1981. Middlesex won the tournamen ...

. He played fifteen further List A matches for Oxfordshire, the last coming against

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire ...

in the 1st round of the

2004 Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy The 2004 Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy was an English county cricket tournament, held between 28 August 2003 and 28 August 2004. The competition was won by Gloucestershire Gladiators who beat the Worcestershire Royals by 8 wickets at Lord's. ...

, which was held in 2003. In his sixteen List A matches for Oxfordshire, he took 14 wickets at a

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

of 55.42, with best figures of 2/46. Arnold captained Oxfordshire for three seasons from 2002 to 2004, after which he gave up the

captaincy A captaincy ( es, capitanía , pt, capitania , hr, kapetanija) is a historical administrative division of the former Spanish and Portuguese colonial empires. It was instituted as a method of organization, directly associated with the home-rule ...

. Playing for Oxfordshire allowed him to represent the

Minor Counties cricket team The National Counties, known as the Minor Counties before 2020, are the cricketing counties of England and Wales that do not have first-class status. The game is administered by the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), which comes unde ...

. He played three first-class matches for the team: against the

Zimbabweans This article is about the demographic features of the population of Zimbabwe, including population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population. Populat ...

in 1985, the Indians in 1990, and the

South Africans The population of South Africa is about 58.8 million people of diverse origins, cultures, languages, and religions. The South African National Census of 2022 was the most recent census held; the next will be in 2032. In 2011, Statistics Sout ...

in 1994. In his three first-class matches, he took 10 wickets at an average of 31.40. His most notable appearance came against the Zimbabweans, with him taking figures of 5/57, his best in first-class cricket. He also played List A cricket for the Minor Counties, first appearing for them in limited-overs cricket against

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

in the 1985 Benson & Hedges Cup. He played thirteen further List A matches for the team, with the last coming in the

1995 Benson & Hedges Cup The 1995 Benson & Hedges Cup was the twenty-fourth edition of cricket's Benson & Hedges Cup. It was an English limited overs county cricket tournament which was held between 23 April and 15 July 1995. It had been agreed before the close of the ...

against

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

. Arnold took 12 wickets in his fourteen matches for the team, at an average of 39.66, with best figures of 3/25. In total, Arnold took 26 wickets in 30 List A matches, at an average of 48.15, with best figures of 3/25. Arnold retired from playing for Oxfordshire during the 2010 season. His 30 years at the county were the joint second longest playing time for the county, level with

Charlie Walters Charlie Walters (born 1 April 1897 – 13 May 1971) was a professional footballer who played for Oxford City, Tottenham Hotspur, Fulham and Mansfield Town. He was also an amateur cricketer. He was born in Sandford-on-Thames, Oxfordshire and d ...

and exceeded only by

Stewart Lee Stewart Graham Lee (born 5 April 1968) is an English comedian, screenwriter, and television director. His stand-up routine is characterised by repetition, internal reference, deadpan delivery, and consistent breaking of the fourth wall. Lee b ...

. Arnold holds the record for the most Minor Counties Championship wickets for Oxfordshire, surpassing

David Laitt David James Laitt (3 May 1931 – 27 June 1998) was an English cricketer. Laitt was a right-handed batsman who bowled right-arm medium pace. It was while doing National Service with the Royal Air Force that he was told to concentrate on his bow ...

's record of 670 in 2009. By the end of his career he had 682 wickets.

References

External links

Keith Arnold
at

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Keith Arnold
at CricketArchive {{DEFAULTSORT:Arnold, Keith 1960 births Living people Cricketers from Solihull English cricketers Oxfordshire cricketers Oxfordshire cricket captains Minor Counties cricketers Cricketers from Warwickshire