He was educated at Palmerston North Boys High School and Dux Ladorum but retained dual British and New Zealand nationality.
He played alongside Ken Wadsworth who was also making his debut and they would later be teammates in both the New Zealand Test and Central Districts sides.
Appointed captain of Central Districts in 1967 when he was just 22, he led them to two Plunket Shield championships in two out of the next three seasons before moving to Canterbury in order to pursue his college teaching studies.
This self-imposed restriction led him to forfeit any chance of the Test captaincy after he dropped out of the team to tour the West Indies in 1972 because several of the matches included Sunday play.
At one point, at 402 for 5 with Pollard and Wadsworth having put on 95 runs for the sixth wicket together, they looked as though they would achieve a remarkable upset.
Some 25 years later he entered politics by joining the South Island-based Christian Heritage Party, where he was 3rd on their list of candidates.