Denis Tomlinson

Illness aside, Rhodesia's limited first-class programme included only two further matches for Tomlinson before the Second World War, both of them against the 1938–39 England team. After the war, however, Rhodesia re-entered the Currie Cup competition and Tomlinson played a full season in 1946–47 in which he took the best bowling figures of his career: six wickets for 56 runs in the match against Western Province. He continued to play in a few matches in 1947–48, but then retired.

Tomlinson played 19 first-class matches during the 1935 tour of England but was not rated as a success in the tour write-up in the 1936 Wisden: "Tomlinson revealed early promise but accomplished nothing when given a chance in the first of the Tests," it wrote. "He seemed unable to pitch the steady length so essential for a spin bowler."

In his limited appearances, though, Tomlinson was successful. In his only match of the 1930–31 season, he took five wickets for 106 runs in the match against the MCC touring team, though he was not then selected for any of the Tests. Further good performances followed across the following two seasons. Against Eastern Province in 1931–32, opening the batting, he scored 109, his only first-class century. And playing for "The Rest" against Western Province in 1932–33, he took 10 wickets in the match for the only time in his career. That match, however, was his last first-class appearance before his selection, more than two years later, for the 1935 South African tour to England.

Tomlinson was a right-handed batsman who played mostly in the middle- to lower-order but occasionally was used as an opener, and a right-arm leg-break and googly bowler. He was educated at Prince Edward School and played for the school First XI in 1928. He made his first-class cricket debut for Rhodesia in 1927–28 and played intermittently for the same side until 1947–48, also playing a single match in 1928–29 for Border. His first-class cricket was restricted, however, by the limited number of matches played by Rhodesia: the side did not contest the Currie Cup competition between 1932–33 and the end of the Second World War.

Denis Stanley Tomlinson (4 September 1910 – 11 July 1993) was a Rhodesian cricketer who played in one Test match for South Africa in 1935. He was the first Rhodesian-born cricketer to represent South Africa.