Gerard Alexander Rotherham (28 May 1899 – 31 January 1985) was a

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 one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

er for

Cambridge University , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

and

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

in England and for

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...

in New Zealand. His uncle,

Hugh Rotherham Hugh Rotherham (16 March 1861 – 24 February 1939) was an English cricketer who played first-class cricket for a wide variety of amateur teams between 1880 and 1903, including the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and the Gentlemen, and a single fi ...

, played first-class cricket in the 1880s. Rotherham's chief cricket fame was achieved as a schoolboy at

Rugby School Rugby School is a public school (English independent boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in Rugby, Warwickshire, England. Founded in 1567 as a free grammar school for local boys, it is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain. Up ...

, where his record as a fast-medium bowler led to him being named as a

Wisden Cricketer of the Year The ''Wisden'' Cricketers of the Year are cricketers selected for the honour by the annual publication ''Wisden Cricketers' Almanack'', based primarily on their "influence on the previous English season". The award began in 1889 with the naming ...

in the 1918 edition of '' Wisden'', at a time when first-class cricket was suspended for the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He then went up to

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

. Rotherham's later first-class career lasted only a few seasons. He got a

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...

at Cambridge in both 1919 and 1920, when his swashbuckling lower-order batting was almost as valuable as his increasingly wayward bowling. In 1921, he had a full season of county cricket with Warwickshire, and this time the bowling was more valuable than the batting, and he took 88 wickets in the season. But at the end of the season he moved to New Zealand, where he made just a few appearances for Wellington in 1928–29.

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* English cricketers People educated at Rugby School Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Cambridge University cricketers Warwickshire cricketers Wellington cricketers Wisden Cricketers of the Year 1899 births 1985 deaths Cricketers from Coventry {{England-cricket-bio-1890s-stub