The New Zealand cricket team toured England in the 1931 season. The tour was the first tour by a New Zealand team in which Test matches were arranged. Originally, only one Test was planned, but New Zealand acquitted themselves so well in the first match and in the game against MCC that matches against Surrey and Lancashire were hastily replaced by two further Test matches. Of the three Tests played, the first was drawn, the second was won comfortably by England; the third was heavily affected by rain and also drawn. The tour as a whole was blighted by poor weather, and 23 of the 32 first-class matches ended as draws.
Background
In 1926, the Imperial Cricket Conference, forerunner of the International Cricket Council, allowed for the first time delegates from India, New Zealand and the West Indies to attend. The three were invited to organise themselves into cricket boards that could, in future, select representative teams to take part in Test matches, which had hitherto been restricted to sides from England, Australia and South Africa.
A non-Test playing visit from a side from New Zealand had already been arranged for the 1927 season, and this tour went ahead without Test matches before a decision was taken on whether New Zealand was ready for Test cricket. In the event, the 1927 side did well enough to get an official (though scarcely full-strength) MCC tour agreed for 1929-30, in which New Zealand's first-ever Tests were played. And future New Zealand tours of England, from this 1931 tour onwards, were full Test match tours.
The 1931 New Zealand team
As in 1927, the team was captained by Tom Lowry, the former Cambridge University and Somerset batsman. Lowry also acted as the tour manager for much of the season until A. T. Donnelly, the chairman of the New Zealand Cricket Council, arrived for the second half of the tour. According to Wisden's 1932 edition, Allcott looked after the tour finances.
The touring side's players were: Tom Lowry, captain (and reserve wicketkeeper) Cyril Allcott Roger Blunt Ian Cromb Stewie Dempster Ken James, wicketkeeper Jack Kerr Mal Matheson Bill Merritt Jackie Mills Curly Page Ron Talbot Giff Vivian Lindsay Weir
Of the 14 players, 13 appeared in at least one Test match on the tour, the exception being Talbot, who never played Test cricket. Lowry, Allcott, Blunt, Dempster, James, Merritt, Mills and Page had been members of the 1927 touring team.
The Test matches
A single Test match, at Lord's at the end of June, was scheduled. But the touring team did so well in this match and in the earlier showpiece match with MCC that county matches against Surrey and Lancashire later in the summer were replaced by further Tests.
First Test Match, Lord's, 27–30 June 1931
Dempster made 53 and New Zealand were 132 for two at lunch on the first day, but the innings subsided against the spin of Ian Peebles (five for 77) and Walter Robins. Cromb and Merritt then reduced England to 190 for seven at the end of the first day, and Frank Woolley had made 80 of those. On the Monday, an eighth wicket partnership of 246 between Leslie Ames (137) and Gubby Allen (122) – still the record England eighth wicket partnership – took England to a lead of 230. Dempster, with 120, Page (104) and Blunt (96) all scored well in New Zealand's reply, and a late partnership by Lowry and Allcott enabled the tourists to declare, setting England 240 to win in 140 minutes.
Second Test Match, The Oval, 29–31 July 1931
Centuries by Herbert Sutcliffe, Duleepsinhji and Wally Hammond led England to a big total, and New Zealand, lacking Dempster, who was injured, wilted against Gubby Allen, who took five for 14 in 13 overs. Only Lowry, with 62, made runs and Maurice Tate, though taking only one wicket, bowled 18 overs for just 15 runs. Following on, New Zealand's batsmen struggled again, with only Vivian (51), Blunt (43), Mills (30) and Kerr (28) getting a start. The match, which had lost some time to rain, was over in the mid-afternoon of the third day.
Third Test Match, Manchester, 15–18 August 1931
Rain ruined the match, and a start could not be made until midway through the last afternoon. Sutcliffe, with an unbeaten 109, scored his second century of the series.
First-class and other matches
A total of 32 first-class matches, including the three Tests, were played, but only nine of them came to a definite result in a very wet summer. The New Zealanders won the matches against Essex, MCC, Northamptonshire, Scotland, Glamorgan and Gloucestershire. Apart from their Test defeat, they also lost to Middlesex and Kent.