First Test Century

By Brian Sanderson

Carrying on with the first official tour of New Zealand in 1930,
the second Test Match was at Wellington Basin on the 24
January .New Zealand batted first
with a opening pair of Jackie Mills and Stewie Dempster.


They put on a opening stand of 276 which stood as the record
 first wicket partnership until 1972 when Glenn Turner and
 Terry Jarvis put on 387 against the West Indies at Bridgetown
 .

During the Wellington Test Jackie Mills who was a  left handed bat
 scored 117 in 4 hours 20 minutes which included 13 fours in
 4 hours 20 minutes which included 13 fours.However the
 first Test century against England went to Stewie Dempster
 in 205 minutes and went on to score 136 in 4 hours 35 minutes
 which included 8 fours.

Mills had a disappointing Test career scoring only 124  in the
next 9 innings.Whilst Dempster  emigrated to England to
become Leicester captain.

Back to the match New Zealand went on to score 440 runs.
M.C.C.batted to score 320 with the top scorer being Stan
Nichols of Essex who scored 78 not out which turned out
to be his highest Test score. Another ex footballer.

On the third day Dempster played a second fine innings
of 80 not out New Zealand scored 164 for 4
.A earlier declaration might have put M.C.C.
under pressure but Duleepsinhji and Woolley help to bat
 out a draw.
.