Cuthbert Ottaway the first England-Scotland international, remarked in later years that none of the southern amateurs in the side would speak to him. As a cricketer, Cuthbert Ottaway represented Eton College, Oxford University, Gentlemen, South of England, Middlesex, Kent and M.C.C., also touring the United States and Canada with an England team in 1872. He played as a right-handed batsman and first came to public notice in 1868, when his 108, scored in the Eton-Harrow match at Lord's, was largely responsible for his team's victory in the fixture by an innings and 108 runs. Ottaway went on to score two first-class centuries,
Cuthbert Ottaway King's Scholar) and at Brasenose College, Oxford, where he displayed a versatility as a sportsman matched only by his near-contemporary Alfred Lyttelton. Representing his school in the annual cricket match against Harrow, twice victor in the Public Schools' Rackets Doubles Championship, and winning Blues for representing his university at football (1874), cricket (1870–73), racquets (1870–73), athletics (1873) and real tennis (1870–72), Ottaway was – an Oxford newspaper remembered after his death – "a great cricketer... the best amateur racquet player of his time, a capital football player and a fair sprint runner. It has fallen to the lot of few