Hugh Rotherham
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Hugh Rotherham (16 March 1861 – 24 February 1939) was an English
cricketer Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...
who played
first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...
for a wide variety of
amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...
teams between 1880 and 1903, including the
Marylebone Cricket Club The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's, Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London, England. The club was the governing body of cricket from 1788 to 1989 and retain ...
(MCC) and the
Gentlemen ''Gentleman'' (Old French: ''gentilz hom'', gentle + man; abbreviated ''gent.'') is a term for a chivalrous, courteous, or honorable man. Originally, ''gentleman'' was the lowest rank of the landed gentry of England, ranking below an esquire ...
, and a single first-class match for
Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...
. He was born and died at
Coventry Coventry ( or rarely ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands county, in England, on the River Sherbourne. Coventry had been a large settlement for centurie ...
. Rotherham's father was the Coventry
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manufacturer John Rotherham and he was educated at
Uppingham School Uppingham School is a public school (English fee-charging boarding and day school for pupils 13–18) in Uppingham, Rutland, England, founded in 1584 by Robert Johnson, the Archdeacon of Leicester, who also established Oakham School. ...
where he was captain of the cricket team in 1879. Not going to university, he joined his father's company and in the first half of the 1880s played a lot of cricket as a right-handed lower-order batsman and a right-arm fast bowler who bowled in the round-arm style. Rotherham's first first-class match was for an " England XI" against
Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
and he took seven wickets in the match. Three weeks later, playing for a "Gentlemen of England" side against
Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
he did even better, taking six for 34 and four for 65 to finish with match figures of 10 for 99. That led to his selection for the showpiece Gentlemen v Players match at
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, where he took eight wickets as the Gentlemen recorded a rare victory. He played only minor cricket in 1881, but returned in 1882 and again played in some of the bigger fixtures of the year, including the Gentlemen v Players match at
The Oval The Oval, currently named for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club sinc ...
. In the 1883 season, Rotherham was one of the principal participants in the Gentlemen v Players match at The Oval which ended sensationally in a
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. In the Players' first innings, he took six wickets for 41 runs and, when the Gentlemen had been set 150 to win the match, he joined
A. P. Lucas Alfred Perry "Bunny" Lucas (20 February 1857 – 12 October 1923) was an English first-class cricketer from 1874 to 1907, playing for Cambridge University Cricket Club, Cambridge University, Surrey County Cricket Club, Surrey, Middlesex County C ...
, who had opened the innings, with nine wickets down for 136, just 14 short; the pair added 13, of which Rotherham scored 11, but Rotherham was then bowled by Edmund Peate with the scores level. He achieved his best bowling figures in the 1884 season, playing for the Gentlemen of England against Oxford University: in the first Oxford innings, he took eight wickets for 57 runs and he followed that up with six for 93 in the second innings to finish with match figures of 14 for 150. He also appeared in a first-class match between an England XI and the 1884 Australian team at
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, a match scheduled for three days but completed in a single day. The 1884 season was the last in which he played in the Gentlemen v Players series and he failed to take a wicket in his last appearance in this fixture. In 1885 he played only two matches, both taking place in a single week, and thereafter he was almost exclusively involved in second-class games only, including several where he was captain of the Warwickshire team, at that stage not a first-class team. There were only three exceptions: two of the matches played on a tour in September 1886 of North America led by Ned Sanders and consisting of amateur cricketers, of which Rotherham was one, were reckoned to be of first-class status. Then in 1903, almost 17 years after his previous first-class match, he returned for his single first-class appearance for Warwickshire when he captained the side against the touring team from Philadelphia. In this last game, he also kept wicket for the only time in his career and he also made his highest first-class score, an innings of 33. Rotherham became head of the family company and was active in the Coventry guild companies and in the London Clock Makers' Company, where he was master in 1926. His obituary in ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' also states that he was on the board of
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. But it also exaggerates his claims to cricketing fame, stating that he appeared in "the earlier Test matches against Australia", which is not true. Rotherham was not married. His nephew, Gerard Rotherham, played first-class cricket for
Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
, Warwickshire and
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in
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, and was a
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as a schoolboy at
Rugby School Rugby School is a Public school (United Kingdom), private boarding school for pupils aged 13–18, located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire in England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independ ...
during the suspension of first-class cricket in the
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.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rotherham, Hugh 1861 births 1939 deaths People educated at Uppingham School English cricketers Warwickshire cricketers Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers Orleans Club cricketers Gentlemen cricketers Non-international England cricketers Gentlemen of England cricketers C. I. Thornton's XI cricketers A. J. Webbe's XI cricketers E. J. Sanders' XI cricketers Cricketers from Coventry Masters of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers People educated at Rugby School