At a time when, he said, it was "desirable but by no means essential" for an Oxbridge student to finish with a degree,[4] he approached his studies light-heartedly and did not sit for his exams in his final year, preferring to concentrate on his captaincy of the Oxford cricket team.

[6] In the match against Free Foresters a few weeks earlier he had scored 236, including four sixes off four balls, and declared at the end of the first day when Oxford had made 520 for 8.

He played only a few first-class matches in 1928 and 1929, and none from then until 1934, when H. D. G. Leveson Gower, who was President of Surrey, accosted him in Throgmorton Street and in the course of conversation asked him to take over the county's captaincy.

[10] He was an instant success, making 1,000 runs in each of the next four seasons and being appointed vice-captain on the MCC tour of the West Indies in 1934–35, where he played in all four Test matches.

[11] He had to take over the captaincy midway through the Fourth Test after the captain, Bob Wyatt, had his jaw broken by a fast ball from Manny Martindale.

[12] He also played one Test at Lord's in the 1935 series against South Africa, and was chosen to lead the non-Test tour of Australia and New Zealand in 1935–36.

He flew as British flak liaison officer with the first American bomber mission against the German naval base at Wilhelmshaven.