Drake's career in rural parishes in his younger days made it difficult for him to establish himself as a cricketer. He was prominent in local cricket as an all-rounder. Playing in two one-day matches for Naseby against
Ranfurly in November and December 1914, he opened both the batting and the bowling, taking 6 for 33 in the first match, and making the match top score with 34 ("a good and merry innings") and taking 5 for 22 in the second. During his residence in Gisborne, Drake played several representative matches for
Poverty Bay. His batting helped them defend the
Hawke Cup successfully twice in 1920 and 1921 when, opening the batting, he made the highest score on either side in each match: 45 not out against
Manawatu and 63 against
Wanganui. He was selected to represent
the New Zealand Minor Associations in a
first-class match against
the touring Australians in March 1921. He and his teammates were overwhelmed by the Australians by an innings inside two days of the scheduled three-day match, but he did make 15 opening the first innings, which was the equal second-highest score for the innings; he also took a wicket. At the time of his first-class match, Drake was described as "a sound bat with an extremely ugly but effective style [who] scores well all round the wicket", a "very useful change bowler and a brilliant field in any position". ==References==