Early Career
Woolmer was born in the hospital across the road from the cricket ground in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, in India. His father was the cricketer Clarence Woolmer, who represented United Provinces (now Uttar Pradesh) in the Ranji Trophy. Woolmer went to school in Kent, first at Yardley Court in Tonbridge and then The Skinners' School in Tunbridge Wells. When he was 15, Colin Page, the coach and captain of the Kent second XI, converted him from an off-spinner to a medium pace bowler.
Woolmer's first job was as a sales representative for ICI, and his first senior cricket was with the Tunbridge Wells club and with Kent's second XI. In 1967 he broke the Kentish Leagues' Bat and Trap record for most consecutive strikes between the white posts - 13 in one game. Then in 1968, at the age of 20, he joined the Kent cricket staff and made his championship debut against Essex. His ability to move the ball about at medium-pace was ideally suited to one-day cricket at which he became a specialist. He won his county cap in 1969. Woolmer began his coaching career in South Africa in 1970-71 at the age of 22 and by 1975, when he made his Test debut, he had become a teacher of physical education at a prep school in Kent as well as running his own cricket school - at the time one of the youngest cricket school owners anywhere.
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