As a player, he played first-class cricket for Somerset, Hampshire and in South Africa with Western Province.

He grew up in the West Country, where he played his early club cricket for Taunton Deane.

[1] Keith made his debut in first-class cricket for Somerset against Cambridge University at Fenner's in May 1959, with him making a further appearance that season against the touring Indians.

[4] In fifteen first-class appearances for Somerset, he scored 319 runs at an average of 12.76, but never passed fifty.

[8] In 1964, long-standing opening batsman Jimmy Gray was available for only the second half of the season, and Keith stood in for him for the first two months of the season, opening with Roy Marshall, though he failed to retain his place for long once Gray was available again.

He scored 561 runs at an average of 26.75 across the season, but did score the only century of his first-class career when he made an unbeaten 101 against the touring South Africans, reaching his century by hitting a six into the pavilion in the last over of the day, with Wisden remarking that up to that point he had played a rather stubborn innings.

[8] Keith asked to be released by Hampshire at the end of the 1967 season, in order to move to South Africa.