Having the famous forebear can also be a burden, but this Compton,29, has already exceeded the highest Test score his grandfather, Denis, made against New Zealand in New Zealand, which was 79.

He still has some way to go to match the 17 hundreds Denis Compton made for England, and he possesses little of his dash, but he is on his way now with the almost certain guarantee of an Ashes series to add lustre to any more he might score.

His hundred here in Dunedin was chanceless, as was Cook’s, though England’s situation was perfectly tailored to his personality and style.

Needing to bat at least five sessions to save the match, after conceding a first innings deficit of 293, it was if the spec had been written specially for him, his strengths being patience and an organised mind used to plotting long innings.

His concentration was so fierce that he did not appear to notice when Brendon McCullum, in an attempt to work a wicket, posted two fielders at short mid-on and then swapped them around just as Tim Southee ran in to bowl.

Here in Dunedin, on a pitch that had gone to sleep and against an attack that had one pace bowler feeling his way back after injury (Southee), two more with 15 Tests between them and a spinner making his debut, he looked in control despite getting bogged down in the nineties.

In fact, the biggest threat seemed to come from the run-out with him and Cook having several close shaves, ones that might have been terminal had New Zealand’s fielders managed to hit the stumps direct.

Apart from those occasional mix ups, having Cook as an opening partner is clearly a solace to Compton.

England’s captain has already given his public support to him as well as extolling the virtues of having a left-right combination at the head of the order, to jog bowlers off their line.

Their stand had reached 231 when Trent Boult dismissed Cook for 116, beating the previous highest opening partnership for England against New Zealand, the 223 made by Graeme Fowler and Chris Tavare at the Oval in 1983.

It was also Cook and Compton's third 100-partnership together from ten attempts, a higher percentage, for now, than Cook and Andrew Strauss, who made 12 century stands from 117 innings.

Cook reached his hundred first, with a swept four off Bruce Martin, but it was a facsimile of so many Cook centuries of late, being based on a watertight defence and a clinical dispatch of the bad ball.

When you see him as resolutely back to business as he was yesterday, you wonder why he appeared so flaky in the first innings when, uncharacteristically for him, he was not in control of his shots striking the ball in the air several times.

Perhaps he felt the need to be positive against New Zealand in the first innings after they had won the toss and put England in to bat and, as senior partner, he had wanted to make the running.

Strauss did something similar when Cook first started and fell foul of it, a lesson the latter appears to have learnt from, given his return to old ways, in the space of an innings.

With his hundred, Cook now draws ahead of the quartet of England batsmen, which includes Kevin Pietersen, on 22 Test hundreds to join Vivian Richards, one of the great cricketers, on 24.

Cook has none of Richards' charisma or virtuosity but he tends to get the job done with a minimum of fuss, which has its attractions.

With two days to go, and a match to be saved, his job here was to see England through to stumps without loss.

He failed, just, but if most would have forgiven him the tired nibble he had at Boult with the second new ball, he was not in the mood, angrily swishing his bat in disappointment as he trudged off, his standards long set higher than everyone else.

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Having the famous forebear can also be a burden, but this Compton,29, has already exceeded the highest Test score his grandfather, Denis, made against New Zealand in New Zealand, which was 79.

He still has some way to go to match the 17 hundreds Denis Compton made for England, and he possesses little of his dash, but he is on his way now with the almost certain guarantee of an Ashes series to add lustre to any more he might score.

His hundred here in Dunedin was chanceless, as was Cook’s, though England’s situation was perfectly tailored to his personality and style.

Needing to bat at least five sessions to save the match, after conceding a first innings deficit of 293, it was if the spec had been written specially for him, his strengths being patience and an organised mind used to plotting long innings.

His concentration was so fierce that he did not appear to notice when Brendon McCullum, in an attempt to work a wicket, posted two fielders at short mid-on and then swapped them around just as Tim Southee ran in to bowl.

Here in Dunedin, on a pitch that had gone to sleep and against an attack that had one pace bowler feeling his way back after injury (Southee), two more with 15 Tests between them and a spinner making his debut, he looked in control despite getting bogged down in the nineties.

In fact, the biggest threat seemed to come from the run-out with him and Cook having several close shaves, ones that might have been terminal had New Zealand’s fielders managed to hit the stumps direct.

Apart from those occasional mix ups, having Cook as an opening partner is clearly a solace to Compton.

England’s captain has already given his public support to him as well as extolling the virtues of having a left-right combination at the head of the order, to jog bowlers off their line.

Their stand had reached 231 when Trent Boult dismissed Cook for 116, beating the previous highest opening partnership for England against New Zealand, the 223 made by Graeme Fowler and Chris Tavare at the Oval in 1983.

It was also Cook and Compton's third 100-partnership together from ten attempts, a higher percentage, for now, than Cook and Andrew Strauss, who made 12 century stands from 117 innings.

Cook reached his hundred first, with a swept four off Bruce Martin, but it was a facsimile of so many Cook centuries of late, being based on a watertight defence and a clinical dispatch of the bad ball.

When you see him as resolutely back to business as he was yesterday, you wonder why he appeared so flaky in the first innings when, uncharacteristically for him, he was not in control of his shots striking the ball in the air several times.

Perhaps he felt the need to be positive against New Zealand in the first innings after they had won the toss and put England in to bat and, as senior partner, he had wanted to make the running.

Strauss did something similar when Cook first started and fell foul of it, a lesson the latter appears to have learnt from, given his return to old ways, in the space of an innings.

With his hundred, Cook now draws ahead of the quartet of England batsmen, which includes Kevin Pietersen, on 22 Test hundreds to join Vivian Richards, one of the great cricketers, on 24.

Cook has none of Richards' charisma or virtuosity but he tends to get the job done with a minimum of fuss, which has its attractions.

With two days to go, and a match to be saved, his job here was to see England through to stumps without loss.

He failed, just, but if most would have forgiven him the tired nibble he had at Boult with the second new ball, he was not in the mood, angrily swishing his bat in disappointment as he trudged off, his standards long set higher than everyone else.

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Compton was under pressure from the emergence of Joe Root and his first innings duck, which followed a steady, if unspectacular, tour to India.

But he can now look forward to a chance to play against Australia this summer, 50 years since his grandfather, Denis, hit the runs which win the Ashes at the Oval in coronation year.

Despite a nervous start he ended the day 102 not out after setting an England record opening stand against New Zealand with Alastair Cook, who scored his 24th Test hundred typically leading from the front after his side’s first innings disaster.

“To get to this moment is something special,” said Compton, who added 231 with Cook for the first wicket. “I never thought I would be sitting here right now with a Test hundred. I kept believing it even though it has been a long time. It is a strange feeling.

“I was well aware of that [pressure]. Joe is a fantastic talent. He has played brilliantly over the last year. You don’t need to read the press. You instinctively know what you need to do.

I felt this innings was very important and I needed to pull something out. It was great that I could. I will probably look back and wonder how it happened but I just tried to keep my head down and focus.”

His father, Richard, was picked out by the television cameras at the ground in tears as Compton reached his century.

Compton said the family have had a hard time in recent years, his sister Alex was left paraplegic after a car accident five years ago, and the weight of the occasion was palpable as he batted through the 90s.

A direct hit would have run him out on 94 when he went for a risky single and he almost edged a seaming delivery from Tim Southee when he was three short of his hundred.

But a single tucked through midwicket off Southee brought up his century and an outpouring of relief shortly afterwards.

“I was holding back the emotions,” he said. “It was one of those where I was itching to have a flap at the spinner [to get to his hundred] before the new ball but obviously the bigger picture – drawing the game – was something Cooky reminded me of. I managed to reign myself in. I tried to hold my nerve and here I am.”

Compton is always proud of talking about his grandfather, Denis, but this is his time and he understandably wants to forge his own identity in cricket.

“I am sure it is nice to do something my grandfather did but right now I am happy for myself and obviously my family,” he said. “I had a few family issues back home. I am proud he [father] is here and to give that to both my parents to take home with them.”

He described Cook’s pre-match assessment of his opening partner’s intense character as a “fair appraisal”. There have been many players with the talent to succeed but unable to free themselves from the pressure to thrive in Test cricket and there were fears Compton was heading the same way.

He has waited a long time for his chance, spending a decade on the county circuit, and you sensed it would have been a crushing blow to him if he had let this chance to play in the summer’s Ashes series slip by.

But now an English Ashes summer is likely to again feature the name Compton.

“You just don’t want to let yourself down,” he said. “It is something you have worked towards for a long time and want to make most of the opportunity. This is a great England team to be part of and you want to stay part of it too.

“I have always been someone who has analysed myself quite a lot and probably to my detriment, but in some ways it has also got me where I am. That hunger that drive. I had a lot of time to think in the field [about his first innings duck].

It is a good wicket out there. I just had to find a way. It was not always pretty. I knew I had it in me. It was just something I needed to prove to myself. How you get them doesn’t really matter as long as you have got them.”

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