 As a bowler, Buchanan took 26 wickets at a bowling average of 41.11, with best figures of 4/56.Following his studies, he made a single first-class appearance for the Marylebone Cricket Club against Oxford University in 1910.In this match, he scored 5 runs in the MCC first-innings, before being dismissed by Frank Tuff, while in their second-innings he was dismissed for a duck by Philip Le Couteur, in a match which the Oxford University v Marylebone Cricket Club won by 259 runs.