On 10 January 1930 New Zealand played their first Test match, against an MCC side at Lancaster Park, Christchurch. Tom Lowry captained the home team and Stewie Dempster batted nearly four hours for 136 in the second innings. England won by eight wickets but New Zealand's elevation to Test status was the inter-war period's quiet expansion of the international game.
New Zealand had been admitted to the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1926 alongside India and West Indies. England's 1929-30 visit was the first official Test series.
MCC's 1929-30 tour split into two halves, with one squad in the West Indies (where England played their first Tests against the Caribbean) and another in New Zealand. England fielded a second-string team led by Harold Gilligan; a stronger MCC tour to Australia would have made selection awkward.
Dempster's 136 — the first century in New Zealand's Test history — was the centrepiece of New Zealand's reply. He shared a 276-run partnership with Jackie Mills (117), and the home side made 440. England, with Frank Woolley among the early wickets, recovered through a Maurice Allom hat-trick on debut and pressed home a small advantage to win by eight wickets.
The series was drawn 1-0 across the four matches that followed, and the small home crowds — Christchurch's first day saw under 4,000 — gave little hint of the long, contested history ahead.
Lowry wins toss; New Zealand bowl.
Maurice Allom hat-trick on Test debut for England.
Dempster 136 — first NZ Test century.
276-run partnership with Jackie Mills.
England win by eight wickets.
10 Jan 1930
Test begins at Lancaster Park.
11 Jan
Maurice Allom takes hat-trick on debut for England.
13 Jan
Dempster 136, century partnership with Mills.
13 Jan
England win by eight wickets.
“We had arrived at last.”
New Zealand would not win their first Test until 1956 (against the West Indies). But Test status secured tours to and from the rest of the cricket world; the next series (1931 in England) saw New Zealand earn a draw at Lord's and another two Tests almost as a courtesy.
An unobtrusive but decisive moment in cricket's expansion — the entry of New Zealand as Test cricket's fifth nation.
The Christchurch Test marks New Zealand's formal entry into Test cricket. Dempster's 136 stood as the country's highest Test score for some years.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.