His Wisden obituary said of his batting: "Of graceful style, he showed to special advantage in cutting and hitting to leg..." He exceeded one thousand runs in a season on four occasions.

During his time with Surrey they won the County Championship in 1894, 1895, and 1899, though only in 1895 did he make a significant contribution.

Holland had seven elder brothers who encouraged him to join in their games of cricket from when he was only three years old.

He made a successful debut for the county, aged 18, in his only first-class appearance of the 1894 season, in a non-Championship fixture against Essex.

From 1903 until the end of his career, he was no longer in and out of the side but appeared in almost every fixture, even though his seasonal average never rose above the twenties.

This stood as the Surrey record for this wicket until Mark Ramprakash and Azhar Mahmood had a partnership of 311 in 2005.