Paul Pollard

{{short description|English cricketer}} {{about|the English cricketer|the Irish librarian known as Paul Pollard|Mary Pollard}} {{EngvarB|date=August 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}} {{Infobox cricketer | name = Paul Pollard | image = 1 14 Loten action.jpg | caption = Pollard (standing) in May 2022 | country = England | fullname = Paul Raymond Pollard | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1968|9|24|df=yes}} | birth_place = [[Nottingham]], England | batting = Left-handed | bowling = Right-arm medium | club1 = [[Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club|Nottinghamshire]] | year1 = 1987–1998 | club2 = [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] | year2 = 1999–2001 | club3 = [[Lincolnshire County Cricket Club|Lincolnshire]] | year3 = 2003 | type1 = [[First-class cricket|FC]] | debutdate1 = 22 July | debutyear1 = 1987 | debutfor1 = <br />[[Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club|Nottinghamshire]] | debutagainst1 = [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] | lastdate1 = 8 September | lastyear1 = 2001 | lastfor1 = <br />[[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]] | lastagainst1 = [[Durham County Cricket Club|Durham]] | type2 = [[List A cricket|LA]] | debutdate2 = 9 August | debutyear2 = 1987 | debutfor2 = <br />[[Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club|Nottinghamshire]] | debutagainst2 = [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] | lastdate2 = 28 August | lastyear2 = 2003 | lastfor2 = <br />[[Lincolnshire County Cricket Club|Lincolnshire]] | lastagainst2 = [[Norfolk County Cricket Club|Norfolk]] | columns = 2 | column1 = [[First-class cricket|First-class]] | matches1 = 192 | runs1 = 9,685 | bat avg1 = 31.44 | 100s/50s1 = 15/48 | top score1 = 180 | deliveries1 = 275 | wickets1 = 4 | bowl avg1 = 68.00 | fivefor1 = 0 | tenfor1 = 0 | best bowling1 = 2/79 | catches/stumpings1 = 158/– | column2 = [[List A cricket|List A]] | matches2 = 187 | runs2 = 5,233 | bat avg2 = 33.54 | 100s/50s2 = 5/33 | top score2 = 132[[not out|*]] | deliveries2 = 18 | wickets2 = 0 | bowl avg2 = – | fivefor2 = – | tenfor2 = – | best bowling2 = – | catches/stumpings2 = 66/–

| date = 17 September | year = 2021 | source = http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/player/18560.html CricInfo }}

'''Paul Raymond Pollard''' (born 24 September 1968) is an English [[cricket]] umpire and former [[first-class cricket]]er. As a player, he was an opening batsman who played over 300 games in first-class and [[List A cricket]] for [[Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club|Nottinghamshire]] before a shorter stay with [[Worcestershire County Cricket Club|Worcestershire]]. After retiring from top-line [[county cricket]] in 2002, he had one season with [[Lincolnshire County Cricket Club|Lincolnshire]] and appeared twice for them in List A matches. His medium-pace bowling was of the occasional variety, and with it he captured four first-class wickets. He has also coached, including in [[Zimbabwe]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://content-www.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/82975.html |title=A review of Zimbabwe's world Cup warm-ups |author=Ward, John |date=13 May 1999 |accessdate=3 October 2007 |publisher=[[Cricinfo]] |archive-date=19 January 2013 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130119232457/http://content-www.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/82975.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Playing career== Pollard played for Nottinghamshire's Second XI once in 1985, and a number of further times in 1986 and the first part of 1987, but for the most part was notably unsuccessful, repeatedly being dismissed for low scores.<ref name="player-oracle"> {{cite web |url=http://cricketarchive.co.uk/cgi-bin/ask_the_player_oracle.cgi?playernumber=4590 |title=Player Oracle on CricketArchive |accessdate=3 October 2007 |publisher=CricketArchive}}</ref> However, at the start of July 1987 he scored 110 against [[Sussex County Cricket Club|Sussex]] II, and a few weeks later he made his first-class debut against [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]], scoring 31 in his only knock as Nottinghamshire won the game by an innings. He played four more first-class matches and one List A game that season, his highest score being 59 in the [[County Championship|Championship]] match against [[Lancashire County Cricket Club|Lancashire]] in late July.

Pollard began 1988 in the seconds, but a series of solid scores brought him back into the first team by the second half of May. His best innings that season came in the Championship game at [[Hesketh Park (cricket ground)|Dartford]] in early June: Nottinghamshire had been skittled for 65 in their first innings, and went into their second nearly 250 runs behind [[Kent County Cricket Club|Kent]]. Pollard responded with 142, his maiden first-class century, and in the end Kent had to scramble for a two-wicket victory.<ref> {{cite web |url=http://cricketarchive.co.uk/Archive/Scorecards/50/50005.html |title=Kent v Nottinghamshire in 1988 |accessdate=3 October 2007 |publisher=CricketArchive}}</ref> Thereafter, however, he struggled, and played only two first-team games after June. Pollard ended the summer with just 428 first-class runs from 17 innings, [[batting average (cricket)|averaging]] 26.75. In [[one-day cricket]] he fared even worse: four innings produced just 85 runs, with no score over 25.

1989, however, was a considerably happier summer for Pollard. For the first time he was a near-regular in the side, and he passed a thousand first-class runs for the first of three times, averaging a little over 33. He scored two hundreds and four fifties, and in June he had an excellent run of form against Kent, making 391 runs against them in five days.<ref name="player-oracle" /> In the Championship he made 83 and 131, albeit in a losing cause while in a sandwiched [[Refuge Assurance League]] match he scored a match-winning 100, then finally he hit 77 to help Nottinghamshire through to the final of the [[Benson & Hedges Cup]]. (He also played in the final, which his county won, but failed personally in making only 2.)  For good measure, he hit 153 in his very next innings, against [[Cambridge University Cricket Club|Cambridge University]]. In List A cricket he was also fairly successful, making two centuries.

Pollard played only the first and last parts of the 1990 season in the first team, but thereafter was a regular choice for several years. His best seasons in first-class cricket were 1991, when he scored 1,255 runs at just over 33; and especially 1993, when he achieved a career-best 1,463 runs at 50.44; that year he topped the Nottinghamshire averages.<ref> {{cite web |url=https://cricketarchive.com/Nottinghamshire/Seasons/Seasonal_Averages/1993_f_Batting_by_Average.html |title=First-class Batting and Fielding for Nottinghamshire in 1993 |accessdate=3 October 2007 | publisher=CricketArchive}}</ref> The 1993 season also saw him make his highest score in first-class cricket, and once again he punished one county particularly: [[Derbyshire County Cricket Club|Derbyshire]] suffered as Pollard scored 180 and 91 in a drawn Championship match, followed immediately by another 91 in an easy [[AXA Equity and Law League]] win.

Thereafter, Pollard's first-class figures were never quite as good again, but in the one-day game it was to be 1995 that would prove his most successful season. He scored 882 List A runs that year, by some distance his highest season's aggregate, and made eight half-centuries as well as a single hundred, an innings of 132[[not out|*]] against [[Somerset County Cricket Club|Somerset]] at [[Trent Bridge]] in early June. This century was the culmination of another purple patch: he had made 120 against the same opponents in the Championship a few days earlier, before that 83* versus [[Scotland cricket team|Scotland]] in the [[NatWest Trophy]], and before ''that'' 75 and 81* against Kent in the Championship.<ref name="player-oracle" />

Pollard's career meandered somewhat for a few years in the late 1990s, and while his performances were far from terrible they were less impressive than might have been expected from an experienced opening batsman: in the three seasons between 1996 and 1998 he scored only one hundred in each of first-class and List A cricket. Seeking a new start he signed for Worcestershire for 1999, but his first summer at [[New Road, Worcester|New Road]] was disappointing, Pollard averaging under 20 in first-class cricket, although he was significantly more successful in List A games, with an average there of 41. The following year he made 123* and 69 in a heavy defeat by Kent, and in 2001 he made 131* versus [[Durham University Centre of Cricketing Excellence|Durham UCCE]], but a lengthy career with Worcestershire was not to be: in August 2002, Pollard announced his retirement from the first-class game after a series of injuries.<ref> {{cite web |url=http://content-uk.cricinfo.com/ci/content/story/111886.html |title=Paul Pollard announces his retirement |author=Worcestershire County Cricket Club Media Release |date=7 August 2002 |accessdate=3 October 2007 |publisher=[[Cricinfo]]}}</ref> He had one season (2003) at [[minor counties]] level with Lincolnshire, for whom he played several sizeable innings, and appeared twice in the [[C&G Trophy]].<ref name="player-oracle" />

==Umpiring career== Ahead of the [[2012 English cricket season]], Pollard was named an [[England and Wales Cricket Board|ECB]] reserve umpire.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/england-news-martin-saggers-promoted-to-full-umpires-list-543086| title=Saggers promoted to full umpires list| publisher=[[ESPNcricinfo]]| date=30 November 2011| accessdate=17 September 2021}}</ref> Ahead of the [[2018 English cricket season]], he was promoted to an ECB first-class umpire.<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.ecb.co.uk/news/605532/alex-wharf-added-to-icc-international-umpires-panel| title=Alex Wharf added to ICC International Umpires Panel| publisher=[[England and Wales Cricket Board]]| date=30 January 2018| accessdate=17 September 2021}}</ref> In 2021, he umpired the first [[Women's One Day International]] in the series between [[New Zealand women's cricket team in England in 2021|England and New Zealand]].<ref>{{cite web| url=https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/new-zealand-women-tour-of-england-2021-1260090/england-women-vs-new-zealand-women-1st-odi-1260103/full-scorecard| title=1st ODI (D/N), Bristol, Sep 16 2021, New Zealand Women tour of England|publisher=[[ESPNcricinfo]]| date=16 September 2021| accessdate=17 September 2021}}</ref>

==Notes== {{reflist}}

==External links== *{{cricinfo|id=18560}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pollard, Paul}} [[Category:1968 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:English cricketers]] [[Category:Nottinghamshire cricketers]] [[Category:Worcestershire cricketers]] [[Category:Cricketers from Nottingham]] [[Category:Lincolnshire cricketers]] [[Category:English cricket umpires]] [[Category:20th-century English sportsmen]]