[1] 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.

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 tie.

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, 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.

[1] 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.

[11] But it also exaggerates his claims to cricketing fame, stating that he appeared in "the earlier Test matches against Australia", which is not true.