Stewie Dempster — New Zealand's Pre-Test Star, 1929

New Zealand's batting had been the weaker department through the 1920s; the bowling, led by Bill Merritt and Ted Badcock, was widely judged Test-class. Dempster, a left-handed opener, was the Wellington club star whose technique was thought best-suited to Test cricket.

Stewie Dempster of Wellington had been the leading batsman in New Zealand domestic cricket through the late 1920s. He was 26 by the time New Zealand played its first Test in January 1930. His debut at Christchurch was modest (a duck in the first innings); the Wellington Test that followed produced his founding innings.

New Zealand were 0-1 in the series after the Christchurch defeat. At Wellington's Basin Reserve, in the second Test of late January 1930, Dempster opened with the 25-year-old Jackie Mills. They added 276 for the first wicket — Dempster 136 in 322 minutes, Mills 117. The partnership was at the time the highest first-wicket Test partnership made by any team. New Zealand made 440 in their first innings; the match was drawn.

Dempster played 10 Tests for New Zealand between 1930 and 1933, scoring 723 runs at 65.72 — a Test average bettered only by Bradman, Hobbs, Sutcliffe and a handful of others by 1933. He moved to England in 1936 to play for Sir Julien Cahn's XI and Leicestershire, finishing his career with a first-class average over 44 and 35 hundreds.

“If we had had a regular Test calendar Dempster would have been one of the great batsmen of the period. He simply did not get the matches.”

Dempster played the rest of the home series modestly and toured England in 1931. He moved to England in 1935-36 to play for Sir Julien Cahn's XI and Leicestershire, where he was qualified to play county cricket. His Test average of 65.72 remained the highest by a New Zealander into the 1990s.