Paul Raymond Pollard (born 24 September 1968) is an English cricket umpire and former first-class cricketer. As a player, he was an opening batsman who played over 300 games in first-class and List A cricket for Nottinghamshire before a shorter stay with Worcestershire. After retiring from top-line county cricket in 2002, he had one season with 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. 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. 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. 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. In the Championship he made 83 and 131, albeit in a losing cause while in a sandwiched