Dennis Smith (New Zealand cricketer)

Dennis Smith was born in Toowoomba in Queensland, where he lived until he was 12, when he enrolled at Geelong Grammar School. He studied there from 1925 to 1929, excelling in sport. He won the award for the best all-rounder in the Melbourne public schools cricket competition in 1929. He moved to Dunedin in 1930.[1]

In club cricket in Dunedin, Smith played as a batsman who bowled occasionally, but for Otago he played as an all-rounder who bowled fast-medium and batted in the middle order.[2] He made his debut for Otago in 1931–32 at the age of 18. In the three matches in the Plunket Shield in 1932-33 he scored 147 runs at 36.75, with a top score of 52,[3] and took seven wickets at 14.00,[4] helping Otago to win the Plunket Shield.

A few weeks after the Plunket Shield season finished, Smith opened the New Zealand attack in the First Test against England with his Otago colleague Ted Badcock. He took his only Test wicket with his first delivery when he bowled Eddie Paynter; he was the tenth player to achieve the feat.[5] He sent down another 119 deliveries without success. He was replaced by another Otago colleague, Jack Dunning, for the Second Test, when he served as twelfth man.[6]

He moved to Christchurch in September 1933 to work for the importing and exporting firm A. M. Satterthwaite and Co.[7] He played for Canterbury in the 1933–34 season but was less effective than he had been for Otago, and he played his last first-class match not long after he turned 21. However, he was one of the leading batsmen in Christchurch senior club cricket in 1933–34, scoring 507 runs at an average of 84.50 with three centuries, helping his team West Christchurch to the championship.[8]

• List of Otago representative cricketers
• One-Test wonder

• Dennis Smith at Cricinfo
• Dennis Smith at Cricket Archive