 Educated at Winchester College and at New College, Oxford, Joy played as a right-handed tail-end batsman and a left-arm fast-medium bowler in one of the trial matches for the Oxford University cricket team of 1901, but was not selected for a first-class game.From 1906, Joy was employed as a tutor in the household of the Rajah of Dhar in India and then on the staff of the Central India College.In September 1908, he played in three first-class cricket matches for the Europeans team, taking 28 wickets in the three matches, including 10 in a match twice.