To an extent, his Test figures did not correspond with his great success for NSW and he is best remembered for a performance in domestic cricket—a world record last wicket partnership, set during a Sheffield Shield match in 1928–29.

Kippax was an "impeccably correct and elegant batsman, [with] an upright, easy stance at the wicket; like his schoolboy idol Victor Trumper, he rolled his sleeves between wrist and elbow and excelled with the late cut",[1] who was probably at his peak during the 1920s.

Highly regarded by both fellow players and spectators, Kippax's innings of 83 in the Lord's Test of 1930 induced Neville Cardus to comment that, "he pleased the eye of the connoisseur all the time.

[4] At this stage, first-class cricket was suspended because of World War I, but when competition resumed in the 1918–19 season he made his debut for New South Wales (NSW).

However, the state possessed much batting talent, which was supplemented by the return to Australia of the Australian Imperial Forces cricket team that played in England after the armistice.

The next season, he hit 248 in only 316 minutes against South Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), then toured New Zealand with the NSW team skippered by Charlie Macartney.

Alan McGilvray describes Kippax's demeanour and presence on the field: ... meticulous in his dress and his life, a man with a squeaky-clean image who would never raise his voice or allow his emotions to run away with him ... His shirt would always be buttoned the same way, the crease would always be sharp in his trousers, no hair would ever be out of place.

He failed in the Test-trial match staged in early December, but made the highest score of the Sheffield Shield competition, 271 not out (in 423 minutes)[14] against Victoria at the SCG, which effectively steered NSW to the title.

[citation needed] Installed as leader of NSW, Kippax earned a reputation as one of Australia's leading batsmen over the next three years.

His captaincy "welded with wit, kindness and some practical joking a raw team into a formidable unit, nurturing such youngsters as Archie Jackson, Stan McCabe and (Sir) Donald Bradman".

[3] Bradman wrote of this performance, "... although they say Victor Trumper was even more beautiful to watch, it is hard to conceive more graceful batting than our skipper produced on that occasion.

[18] The Test selectors still had Kippax under consideration and during March 1928, he again toured New Zealand with an Australian second team, but failed to pass 40 in the seven innings he played.

However, the number eleven batsman Hal Hooker stuck with his captain as the score gradually mounted and the opposition's frustrations grew.As news of the last-wicket stand spread, the crowd swelled, eventually reaching almost 15,000.

However, Wisden rated his 64 not out on a wet wicket in the first Test at Nottingham as his best effort and summarised his tour thus: Essentially a stylist, Kippax was in every sense a great batsman, for he could suit his game to the needs of the occasion.

A beautiful driver to the off, he cut at times in delightful fashion, the slower wickets of England affecting his abilities in that direction in only the slightest degree.

[32] On 6 November 1931, during NSW's first match of the season at Brisbane, he was struck a severe blow to the temple by a rising ball from fast bowler Pud Thurlow.

[36] As compensation for his lack of runs, Kippax led NSW to victory over Victoria in late January, which clinched the Sheffield Shield title for the state.

While the tactic of using short-pitched bowling and close-in fielders on the leg side was originally conceived to stop Don Bradman's phenomenal run-making,[37] Bodyline was used against all the Australian batsmen.

[38] Selected for the first Test at Sydney, Kippax looked very uncomfortable in losing his wicket twice to the spearhead of the Bodyline attack, Harold Larwood.

While most sympathised with his misfortune, and attributed his lack of confidence to the blows he received the previous season,[41] Larwood was more succinct: "Kippax was scared stiff and he let you see it".

[42] Employed as a radio commentator, Kippax spent the remainder of the series covering the Tests, and he also delivered a ten-minute round up of each day's play for the BBC, broadcast in England through its Empire short wave service.

[43] Outspoken in his criticism of Bodyline, Kippax combined with the cricketer and physician Eric Barbour to write the book Anti Body-Line, released just months after the tour ended.

A short, polemical work aimed at an English readership, the book warned of the danger to the game if Bodyline was allowed as a legitimate tactic.

[46] Beginning the tour with a duck, Kippax recovered with 89 at Leicester before contracting a heavy dose of influenza that forced him to miss the next four matches.

Struck down by serious illness again, Kippax was hospitalised with a (wrongly) suspected case of diphtheria and forced to miss the drawn Tests at Old Trafford and Leeds.

With the series locked at one-all, and a timeless Test to be played at The Oval to decide the Ashes, Australia needed to strengthen the batting.

Six days later, Kippax celebrated by making 250 against the Sussex bowling attack, his highest score in England and his first double century for more than five years.

[citation needed] On the team's return from England, Kippax handed the NSW captaincy to Test teammate Bert Oldfield, and ended his first-class career with four Sheffield Shield matches for the state.

[3] His commentary of the fourth Test at Adelaide in early 1937 via a radio-telephone service made history as the first direct radio broadcast of a cricket match from Australia to England.

[53] He was as elegant off the field as he was on; the cricket writer David Frith recorded that, "to visit him in his Bellevue Hill home was to be transported into a calm 1930s world of silk smoking jacket, cigarette holder and art deco trimmings.