[1] Dennis Smith was born in Toowoomba in Queensland, where he lived until he was 12, when he enrolled at Geelong Grammar School.

He won the award for the best all-rounder in the Melbourne public schools cricket competition in 1929.

A few weeks after the Plunket Shield season finished, Smith opened the New Zealand attack in the First Test against England with his Otago colleague Ted Badcock.

He took his only Test wicket with his first delivery when he bowled Eddie Paynter; he was the tenth player to achieve the feat.

He was replaced by another Otago colleague, Jack Dunning, for the Second Test, when he served as twelfth man.