__NOTOC__ Keith Rodney Booth (born 30 September 1942) is a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

writer and former

scorer In cricket, a scorer is someone appointed to record all runs scored, all wickets taken and, where appropriate, the number of overs bowled. In professional games, in compliance with Law 3 of the ''Laws of Cricket'', two scorers are appointed, ...

. He was the principal scorer for

Surrey County Cricket Club Surrey County Cricket Club (Surrey CCC) is a first-class club in county cricket, one of eighteen in the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Surrey, including areas that now form South London ...

and international matches played at

The Oval The Oval, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since ...

between 1995 and 2017. Like

Geoffrey Boycott Sir Geoffrey Boycott (born 21 October 1940) is a former Test cricketer, who played cricket for Yorkshire and England. In a prolific and sometimes controversial playing career from 1962 to 1986, Boycott established himself as one of England's m ...

Dickie Bird Harold Dennis "Dickie" Bird, (born 19 April 1933), is an English retired international cricket umpire. During his long umpiring career, he became a much-loved figure among players and viewing public, due to his excellence as an umpire, but al ...

and

Michael Parkinson Sir Michael Parkinson (born 28 March 1935) is an English broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his television talk show '' Parkinson'' from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007, as well as other talk shows and programmes both in the U ...

, he comes from

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

, and like them he inherited a love of cricket. He has previously scored for

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, historic county in South East England, southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the Ceremonial counties of ...

and MCC and was scorer for ''

Test Match Special ''Test Match Special'' (also known as ''TMS'') is a British sports radio programme, originally, as its name implies, dealing exclusively with Test cricket matches, but currently covering any professional cricket. It broadcasts on BBC Radio 4 LW ...

'' in the West Indies in 1994 and for Pakistan in the

1999 Cricket World Cup The 1999 Cricket World Cup (officially known as ICC Cricket World Cup '99) was the seventh edition of the Cricket World Cup, organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was hosted primarily by England, with Scotland, Ireland, Wales ...

. His wife Jennifer, who died in November 2020, was Surrey's reserve scorer. Booth has written a history of cricket scoring, biographies of the cricketers

Michael Atherton Michael Andrew Atherton (born 23 March 1968) is a broadcaster, journalist and a former England international first-class cricketer. A right-handed opening batsman for Lancashire and England, and occasional leg-break bowler, he achieved the ca ...

Ted Pooley Edward William Pooley (13 February 1842 – 18 July 1907) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for Surrey and Middlesex between 1861 and 1883. In 1877, he was supposed to be England's wicket-keeper in what would be the first T ...

George Lohmann George Alfred Lohmann (2 June 1865 – 1 December 1901) was an English cricketer, regarded as one of the greatest bowlers of all time. Statistically, he holds the lowest lifetime Test bowling average among bowlers with more than fifteen wicke ...

Ernie Hayes Ernest George Hayes (6 November 1876 – 2 December 1953) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Surrey, Leicestershire and England. Ernie Hayes was a right-handed batsman, usually batting at No 3 and strong at driving and pull ...

Walter Read Walter William Read (born 23 November 1855 in Reigate, Surrey, died 6 January 1907 in Addiscombe Park, Surrey) was an English cricketer. A fluent right hand bat, he was also an occasional bowler of lobs who sometimes switched to quick overa ...

, Tom Richardson and Jack Crawford, as well as a biography of the pioneering cricket and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

administrator

C. W. Alcock Charles William Alcock (2 December 1842 – 26 February 1907) was an English sportsman, administrator, author and editor. He was a major instigator in the development of both international football and cricket, as well as being the creator of ...

. He has also written a four-person, three-generation biography of the Hayward family, comprising

Daniel Hayward Daniel Hayward (1807 – 29 May 1852) was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket from 1832 to 1851. He was the father of Cambridge batsmen Thomas Hayward and Daniel Hayward junior; and the grandfather of Tom Hayward, t ...

, his two sons Daniel and

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

, and grandson

Tom Hayward Thomas Walter Hayward (29 March 1871 – 19 July 1939) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Surrey and England between the 1890s and the outbreak of World War I. He was primarily an opening batsman, noted especially for the qual ...

. His book about Lohmann won

The Cricket Society The Cricket Society is a charitable organisation founded in 1945 as the Society of Cricket Statisticians at Great Scotland Yard, London. It has grown steadily to be the largest body of its kind in the cricket world. The Cricket Society now has mor ...

's Book of the Year award for 2007.Book of the Year
Retrieved 11 January 2018 Until 2017, he played for Sutton Cricket Club.

Publications

*''Atherton's progress: From Kensington Oval to Kennington Oval'' (1996) *''Knowing the Score: the Past, Present and Future of Cricket Scoring'' (1999) *''His Own Enemy: The Rise and Fall of Edward Pooley'' (2000) *''The Father of Modern Sport: The Life and Times of Charles W. Alcock'' (2002, republished 2015) *''George Lohmann: Pioneer Professional'' (2007) *''Ernest Hayes: Brass in the Golden Age'' (2008) *''Walter Read: A Class Act'' (2011) *''Tom Richardson: A Bowler Pure and Simple'' (2012) *''Rebel With A Cause: The Life and Times of Jack Crawford'' (2016) co-authored with Jennifer Booth *''The Haywards: The Biography of a Cricket Dynasty'' (2018) co-authored with Jennifer Booth

Ghostwriting

*''Lahore to London'' (2016) co-authored with

Younis Ahmed Mohammad Younis Ahmed (born 20 October 1947) is a Pakistani former first-class cricketer who played in four Test matches and two One Day Internationals between 1969 and 1987. Primarily a middle-order batsman, he played first-class cricket f ...

Notes

References

Acumen Books (reproducing biographical information about Booth taken from the dust jacket of his book ''Knowing the Score'')
{{DEFAULTSORT:Booth, Keith 1942 births Living people Cricket historians and writers Cricket scorers People from Barnsley Cricket statisticians