William Pollock (28 August 1886 – 24 November 1972) was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

first-class

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er. Pollock was born at

Holywood Holy Wood or Holywood may refer to: Places * Holywood, County Down, a town and townland in Northern Ireland ** Holywood, County Down (civil parish), a civil parish in County Down, Northern Ireland ** Holywood railway station (Northern Ireland) * ...

County Down County Down () is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. It covers an area of and has a population of 531,665. It borders County Antrim to the ...

, and was educated at

Campbell College, Belfast Campbell College located in Belfast, Northern Ireland and founded in 1894 comprises a preparatory school department (junior age) and a senior Northern Ireland 'Voluntary Grammar' school, the latter meaning, in terms of provision of education, a ...

. Considered to be the best Irish batsman of his time, Pollock made his debut in

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

for

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

against

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in 1909. His next first-class appearance came against the same opposition the following year at

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

, before a two year gap before his next first-class appearance, which came for Stanley Cochrane's Woodbrook Club and Ground against the touring

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at Bray. His next appearance in first-class cricket came a decade later against Scotland in 1922, which saw Pollock record his only first-class century when he made 144 opening the batting in Ireland's first-innings. His final first-class appearance came the following year against the same opposition, with Pollock scoring 81 runs in Ireland's first-innings. Considered unfortunate not to play more times for Ireland, Pollock scored a total 312 runs across his five first-class matches at an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

of 34.66, while with the ball he took 9 wickets at a

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

of 22.22, with best figures of 3/47. Following his retirement from playing regular cricket, Pollock coached cricket at

Rockport School Rockport School is an independent day and boarding school for boys and girls from 2.5 years to 18 years in the British Public School tradition. It is situated in of woodland on the shore of Belfast Lough in Craigavad, near Holywood, County ...

and later ran a timber business. His son,

Stuart Pollock John Stuart Pollock (5 June 1920 – 1 February 2017) was an Irish first-class cricketer and cricket administrator. Life and cricket Born at Belfast in June 1920, Pollock was the son of the cricketer William Pollock. He was educated at Campbel ...

, also played first-class cricket for Ireland and was president of the

Irish Cricket Union Cricket Ireland, officially the Irish Cricket Union, is the national Sport governing body, governing body for cricket on the island of Ireland (both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland), and oversees the national Ireland cricket team, m ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pollock, William 1886 births 1972 deaths Sportspeople from Holywood, County Down Cricketers from County Down People educated at Campbell College Irish cricketers Woodbrook Club and Ground cricketers Educators from Northern Ireland