In 1929–30 he made 38 (top score) and 23 against the touring MCC, then after making 54, 70, 76 and 24 not out in his next two matches he was selected for New Zealand's first Test.

He spent the 1933 English season playing as a professional for Church in the Lancashire League, scoring 615 runs at 26.73[7] and taking 59 wickets with his medium-pace bowling at 14.72.

In 1935–36 he played in three of the four (non-Test) matches for New Zealand against the touring MCC side, batting at seven or eight and opening the bowling.

[12] Playing for Riccarton in senior Christchurch cricket in March 1938, Roberts scored 214 not out in a little over two hours, with 10 sixes and 24 fours.

[15] Dick Brittenden called Roberts a "diverting mass of contradictions": "He took his magnificent athletic slip catches, he could hit with primitive force, and when he bowled, his out-swinger whipped away like a live thing.