New Zealand Cricket Team in England in 1927 - The 1927 New Zealand Team

The 1927 New Zealand Team

The team was captained by Tom Lowry, who had played first-class cricket in England for both Somerset and Cambridge University. In all, 17 players were used, but three of them only played once, and 10 cricketers played in 20 or more of the 26 first-class matches.

The 14 players who made up the regular side were:

• Tom Lowry (captain)
• Cyril Allcott
• Ernest Bernau
• Roger Blunt
• William Cunningham
• Ces Dacre
• Stewie Dempster
• Matt Henderson
• Kenneth James, wicketkeeper
• Herb McGirr
• Bill Merritt
• John Mills
• Charlie Oliver
• Curly Page

The three who played just one game each were:

• Denis Blundell, later governor-general of New Zealand, a Cambridge undergraduate who failed to get into the university side for any first-class matches in 1927 (though he did in 1928 and 1929)
• Ronald Fox, a 47-year-old wicketkeeper whose main first-class cricket experience had been for MCC on a tour of New Zealand in 1906–07 and who previous first-class match had been for MCC in 1910
• Douglas Hay, the tour manager, aged 50, whose previous game was more than 20 years earlier, for Auckland against the MCC 1906–07 side, when he was stumped by Fox.

James was originally selected as second wicketkeeper, but made such a strong impression that he played in almost every match; only in some minor matches did Lowry deputise for James as wicketkeeper. Of the 14 regulars, only Bernau, Cunningham, Dacre and Oliver did not go on to play Test cricket; of the irregulars, Blundell came closest to Test cricket, representing New Zealand against MCC on an unofficial tour in 1935–36.