golding made his only first-class appearance for essex against the touring new zealanders in 1983. in this match, he took the head of ian smith in the new zealander's first-innings, for the cost of 44 runs from 14 overs. in their second-innings he dismissed the same batsman, this time conceding 53 runs from 14 overs. following this match he played a youth test match for england young cricketers against australia young cricketers. golding later went on to study at cambridge university, with him making his first-class debut for cambridge university cricket club against leicestershire in 1984. he made 14 further first-class appearances for the university, the last of which came against middlesex in 1988. in his 15 first-class appearance for the university, he runs at an average of 17.94 mph, with a high score of 47. with the ball, he took 16 wickets at an expensive bowling average of 91.81, with best figures of 3/51. he also made an appearance for a combined oxford and cambridge universities team against the touring new zealanders in 1986. while at the university he made his list a for the combined universities against hampshire in the 1986 benson & hedges cup. he made 3 further list a appearances for the team, all of which came in that seasons benson & hedges cup.