Formby’s bringing out best in Keedy
HE MAY have been playing top-level cricket for over 20 years – but Gary Keedy still managed to surprise himself with career-best bowling figures.
The former Yorkshire, Lancashire, Surrey and Nottinghamshire spinner is now playing for Formby and took seven wickets for just ten runs off 12 overs to help beat Ainsdale by nine wickets.
His previous best figures came in the County Championship for Lancashire against Durham when he took 7 for 68 in 2010.
But at the age of 42, with plenty of experience in the bank, these figures managed to shock even him.
Keedy said: “7-10 is the best figures I have ever taken – even in my back garden.
“I think my previous best was 7-68 against Durham and I took 14 wickets in a match against Gloucestershire, but 7-10 does not happen every day and actually I was disappointed I went for ten.
“That spell was probably the best spell in my 25-year career in first class and club cricket; everything seemed to go my way. They are not the sort of figures that come in every week. All the nicks went to the keeper.
“There was one bad shot in the run, but I got the rest of them out with good balls – and that’s the way you want it to be.
“Ainsdale are not the strongest side in the division but they are competitive.”
Formby captain and Gloucestershire batsman Ian Cockbain was watching from the sidelines and said that the leftarm spinner does not bowl a bad ball.
But Keedy insists the difference is that the bad balls don’t get punished quite so badly at this level.
He added:“I do bowl bad balls every now and again but the difference is that they don’t get put away like they would at a higher level – so you can get away with it.
“I don’t practice as much as I used to, I play once a week and I still enjoy it. It is frustrating that I can’t get to the level that I want to and everything I have ever done, I want to do as well as I can.”
Towards the end of his first-class career, Keedy took up a position as spin coach and assistant physio at Notts.
And he has pursued both since retiring from county cricket two years ago, now working as a full-time physio at Beardwood Hospital in Blackburn.
And he admits that with plenty going on away from the pitch, this could be his final season.
He added:“I had a chat with Formby a few years ago and I didn’t want to move around clubs so I committed to play for three years.
“The Liverpool league is the best in Lancashire. It is the most competitive, with the best players and best wickets.
“But with the age I am getting to now, I do feel that for every over I bowl there is a young lad in the second XI who is not bowling and could be.
“So I have a decision to make at the end of the season.”