[3] An all-rounder, six feet two inches tall, Cave bowled accurate medium-pace and batted in the middle or lower order.

[5] A torn elbow muscle in 1947 made it difficult for him to bowl his stock out-swinger, and from then on he relied on seamers, cutters and in-swingers.

The tour report in Wisden described his bowling as "always steady and reliable", but on the good batting pitches of the season he took only four wickets from 141 overs in the Tests at an average of 116.25.

[7][8] In 1952–53 he and Ian Leggat added 239 for the ninth wicket for Central Districts against Otago in Dunedin, setting a New Zealand ninth-wicket record that still stands.

He was then appointed to captain the New Zealand team on an eight-Test tour of Pakistan and India from October 1955 to January 1956.

Extreme heat, sub-standard accommodation and facilities, unfamiliar pitches, constant stomach upsets and other illness, as well as dubious umpiring in India, made it difficult for the New Zealanders to play at their best.

[3] Vonnie was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to photography and horticulture, in the 2009 Queen's Birthday Honours, and she died in Whanganui in 2021.