On Friday October 18th my great friend Keith Shaw died after a long heroic struggle with illness. We first met over fifty years ago when the Duke's School Alnwick played cricket against St Cuthbert`s Grammar School and it is incredibly difficult to imagine that Keith will not be lapping the ground and holding court in the Hill Bar in the future.
In 1988 Keith joined Benwell Hill CC after some serious transfer negotiations in the Bacchus. Previously he had played with Amble, Alnwick, Sunderland and Backworth where he enjoyed a successful First Team Career as a batsman and sometime offspinner. Keith played for many years in the middle order of the Hill First Team and subsequently enjoyed some second and third team cricket when as he put it “his lamps had gone”. Keith absolutely loved the game and was a seriously good player.
Keith was a genuinely funny man and had an enormous store of cricketing tales which will no doubt be retold as we try to come to terms with his passing. More than that, Keith volunteered to put countless hours into the administrative side of the game not least as Secretary of Benwell Hill CC for the best part of twenty years.
Keith had the priceless ability to cut through to the nub of any difficult issues and he made meetings fun to attend and minutes worth reading as there was always a joke to be found somewhere. Our Club owes him a huge debt of gratitude.
Keith wore his academic brilliance lightly and had a strong social conscience which was borne out in some of his other voluntary work. He was most definitely a man with a hinterland - he loved his music, his reading and his Westerns and he was a prize asset to any Quiz Team.
First and foremost, Keith was a family man and he was immensely proud of Sarah, his three boys, his Grandson and the wider Shaw-Bernard clan.
In summary – a wonderful man taken far too soon. Details of Keith`s Funeral will be posted on the club website and social media sites in the next few days.
