An English team raised by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) toured New Zealand from December 1935 to March 1936 and played eight first-class matches including four against the New Zealand national cricket team. MCC also played the main provincial teams, Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago, and ten non-first-class matches against teams from minor cricket associations.CricketArchive – tour itinerary
The MCC team was captained by Errol Holmes. The overall tour included a short stopover in Ceylon, where a single minor match was played, and six first-class matches in Australia between October and December 1935.
The team
Errol Holmes (captain) Charles Lyttelton (vice-captain) Wilf Barber Sandy Baxter Billy Griffith Joe Hardstaff John Human James Langridge Mandy Mitchell-Innes Jim Parks Adam Powell Hopper Read Jim Sims Denis Smith
Bob Wyatt was offered the captaincy but declined, saying he needed a rest. In order to limit the expense of the tour, MCC chose only six professionals (Barber, Hardstaff, Langridge, Parks, Sims and Smith), and there was no manager.Errol Holmes, Flannelled Foolishness, Hollis & Carter, London, 1957, p. 109. The team was the youngest-ever English touring team, with an average age of 26.Holmes, pp. 112, 121. Holmes judged his team to be "just about representative of England's second XI at the time".Holmes, p. 111.
Lyttelton, later known as Viscount Cobham, returned to New Zealand as Governor-General between 1957 and 1962.
First-class matches
Assessments The tour made a financial loss for the New Zealand Cricket Council of £3,000, which was considered severe.
References
Bibliography Errol Holmes, Flannelled Foolishness, Hollis & Carter, London, 1957, pp. 126–143 Don Neely & Richard Payne, Men in White: The History of New Zealand International Cricket, 1894–1985, Moa, Auckland, 1986, pp. 136–139
External links Marylebone Cricket Club in New Zealand, 1935-36 at Cricinfo Marylebone Cricket Club in Australia and New Zealand 1935-36 at CricketArchive