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. [2] However,at the start of July 1987 he scored 110 against Sussex II,and a few weeks later he made his first-class debut against 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 Championship match against 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 Dartford in early June:Nottinghamshire had been skittled for 65 in their first innings,and went into their second nearly 250 runs behind Kent. Pollard responded with 142,his maiden first-class century,and in the end Kent had to scramble for a two-wicket victory. [3] 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,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. [2] 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. 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. [4] The 1993 season also saw him make his highest score in first-class cricket,and once again he punished one county particularly: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* against 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 in the NatWest Trophy,and before that 75 and 81* against Kent in the Championship. [2]
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 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 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. [5] 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. [2]
The County Championship, currently known for sponsorship reasons as the Vitality County Championship is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It became an official title in 1890. The competition consists of eighteen clubs named after and representing historic counties, seventeen from England and one from Wales.
The Friends Provident Trophy was a one-day cricket competition in the United Kingdom.
Richard Keith Illingworth is an English former cricketer, who is currently an umpire. The bulk of his domestic cricketing career was with Worcestershire, although he had a spell with Derbyshire, and overseas with Natal. He played in nine Tests and twenty-five ODIs for England, including participating in the 1992 and 1996 Cricket World Cups. He was a part of the English squad which finished as runners-up at the 1992 Cricket World Cup.
James Cullum Tredwell is an English former international cricketer. A left-handed batsman and a right-arm off break bowler, he played his domestic cricket for Kent County Cricket Club and was appointed as County Captain for the 2013 season. He made his debut for Kent in the 2001 season, nine days before his first appearance for England Under-19s. He often fielded at slip. Tredwell was a member of the England team that won the 2010 ICC World Twenty20.
Nicholas Richard Denis Compton is a South African-born English former Test and first-class cricketer who most recently played for Middlesex County Cricket Club. The grandson of Denis Compton, he represented England in 16 Test matches.
Scott Alexander Newman is an English former professional cricketer who played first-class cricket between 2002 and 2009.
Robert Timothy Robinson is an English cricket umpire and former cricketer who played in 29 Test matches and 26 One Day Internationals for England from 1984 to 1989. He was a part of the English squad which finished as runners-up at the 1987 Cricket World Cup.
Matthew John Church is a former English cricketer who played county cricket for Worcestershire and Gloucestershire in the 1990s.
Michael Burns is an English first-class list cricket umpire and former first-class cricketer who played county cricket for Warwickshire and Somerset in a first-class career which spanned from 1992 until 2005. He also played Minor Counties cricket for Cumberland and Cornwall. An adaptable cricketer, he appeared for Cumberland and Warwickshire as a wicket-keeper, but when he moved to Somerset he developed into an aggressive batsman who bowled at medium-pace when needed.
Peter Bernard Wight was a Guyanese first-class cricketer who played for Somerset, Canterbury and British Guiana. Wight was a prolific run scorer at the top of the order, scoring 16,965 runs during his thirteen years at Somerset; and at the time of his death only Harold Gimblett had made more runs for the county. After playing, he became an umpire in English first-class cricket, standing in matches from 1966 to 1995.
James William Arthur Taylor is an English former cricketer and cricket selector who played for Nottinghamshire and England. A right-handed batsman and occasional right-arm leg break bowler, Taylor made his debut in first-class cricket in 2008 for Leicestershire and made major impressions in his first county seasons. He is noted as being a fine fielder in the covers. He became the youngest Leicestershire one-day centurion and first-class double centurion. In 2009, Taylor also became the youngest player in Leicestershire's history to score 1,000 championship runs in a season. A promising talent in his 34 white-ball appearances for England, Taylor was forced into retirement at just 26 years of age due to a previously undiagnosed heart condition.
Charles Victor Tarbox, sometimes known as "Percy" (2 July 1891 – 15 June 1978) was an English cricketer who played over 200 first-class games for Worcestershire in the 1920s. He also played at minor counties level for Hertfordshire, and later still stood as a first-class umpire in both England and South Africa. Tarbox's career statistics were fairly modest, but as his obituary in Wisden noted, he frequently chipped in with a few useful runs or wickets, valuable commodities for the generally weak Worcestershire sides of the day.
Steven Joseph "Steve" O'Shaughnessy is a former English professional cricketer who played for Lancashire and Worcestershire in the 1980s, and then had a substantial career in Minor Counties cricket with Cumberland. Since retiring from playing, he has become an umpire, and was promoted in December 2010 to the first-class panel for the 2011 season.
Somerset County Cricket Club competed in four domestic competitions during the 2009 English cricket season: the first division of the County Championship, the Friends Provident Trophy, the first division of the NatWest Pro40 League and the Twenty20 Cup. Through their performance in the Twenty20 Cup, the team qualified for the Champions League Twenty20. They enjoyed a successful season, but fell short of winning any competitions, prompting Director of Cricket Brian Rose to say "We've had enough of being cricket's nearly men."
Russell John Evans was an English cricketer and umpire. Evans was a right-handed batsman who bowled right-arm medium pace. He was born in Calverton, Nottinghamshire.
The 2013 County Championship season, known as the LV= County Championship for sponsorship reasons, was the 114th cricket County Championship season. It was contested through two divisions: Division One and Division Two. Each team played all the others in their division both home and away. Durham were County Champions for the third time in six seasons. The top two teams from Division Two, Lancashire and Northamptonshire, gained promotion to the first division for the 2014 season, while the bottom two sides from Division One—Derbyshire and Surrey—were relegated to Division Two for 2014.
William Thomas Root is an English cricketer who plays for Glamorgan. Primarily a left-handed batsman, he also bowls right-arm off break. He is the brother of former England Test Captain Joe Root.
The 2017 Royal London One-Day Cup tournament was a limited overs cricket competition that forms part of the 2017 domestic cricket season in England and Wales. Matches were contested over 50 overs per side and had List A cricket status. All eighteen First-class counties competed in the tournament which ran from the end of April with the final taking place at Lord's on 1 July. Nottinghamshire won the tournament, defeating Surrey in the final. The defending champions were Warwickshire.
The 2020 Bob Willis Trophy was a first-class cricket tournament held in the 2020 English cricket season, and the inaugural edition of the Bob Willis Trophy. It was separate from the County Championship, which was not held in 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. The eighteen county cricket teams were split into three regional groups of six, with the two group winners with the most points advancing to a final held at Lord's. The maximum number of overs bowled in a day was reduced from 96 to 90, and the team's first innings could be no longer than 120 overs.
The 2021 County Championship was the 121st cricket County Championship season in England and Wales. For the first phase of the tournament, the teams were split into three groups of six, with each side playing ten matches. The top two teams from each group progressed into Division One for the second phase of the competition, with the other teams progressing to Divisions Two and Three. The team that finished top of Division One became the county champions; and the top two teams from Division One contested a five-day match at Lord's for the Bob Willis Trophy. On 17 December 2020, the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed all the fixtures for the tournament. After completion of the group stage on 14 July 2021, the ECB confirmed the fixtures for the division stage on 22 July 2021.
