96 Facts About Bobby Peel

Robert Peel was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket for Yorkshire between 1883 and 1897.

Primarily a left-arm spin bowler, Bobby Peel was an effective left-handed batsman who played in the middle order.

Bobby Peel began playing for Yorkshire in 1883 but, after a successful debut, was overshadowed in the team by Edmund Peate and often played only a minor role with the ball.

Improvements in his batting and his excellence as a fielder kept him in the team, and when Peate was sacked for drunkenness in 1887, Bobby Peel became Yorkshire's main spinner.

Bobby Peel had already played for England, touring Australia with two professional teams, although he did not play a Test in England until 1888.

Decades later, a widely circulated story suggested that Bobby Peel urinated on the pitch before being sent away.

Bobby Peel continued to play and coach cricket for most of his life and in later years became associated with Yorkshire .

Bobby Peel was born in Churwell, a village close to Morley, on 12 February 1857.

Bobby Peel was the son of a miner, and Peel himself worked in the mines for a time.

An injury to Peate allowed Bobby Peel to make his first-class debut for Yorkshire against Surrey at Sheffield on 10 July 1882.

Bobby Peel took nine wickets in the game, including five for 83 in the second innings.

Bobby Peel had a junior role, and his bowling was used sparingly; in five seasons he took 163 wickets for Yorkshire, and only took more than 50 first-class wickets in a season once before 1887.

Bobby Peel was required to bowl a large number of overs; in minor matches, mainly played against the odds, he took 321 wickets at an average of less than five.

Bobby Peel was less effective in the remaining games, ending the series with 21 wickets at an average of 21.47, and scored 37 runs at an average of 7.40.

Bobby Peel improved his record with the bat, scoring 835 runs at 25.30.

Twice in 1887, Bobby Peel appeared for the professional Players in their prestigious match against the Gentlemen, the first time he had been selected for the team.

Bobby Peel took 49 first-class wickets on the tour, finishing second in the bowling averages for the team, and scored 449 runs in first-class matches at an average of 34.53, which placed him second in the batting averages.

Bobby Peel took nine wickets in the match, including five for 18 in the first innings as Australia were bowled out for 42 runs.

Bobby Peel took 171 first-class wickets, the first time he had passed 100 wickets in a season, at an average of 12.22.

Bobby Peel topped the Yorkshire bowling averages for county matches.

That year, an Australian team toured England and Bobby Peel was chosen for his first Test matches in England.

Bobby Peel has won his way to the very front rank by sheer merit, and bats and fields so well that he would be worth playing in any eleven if he could not get a wicket.

The fielding was poor; Bobby Peel had twelve catches dropped from his bowling in one game.

Bobby Peel came top of both the Yorkshire batting and bowling averages and had three times more wickets than any other player.

In 1890, Bobby Peel took 171 wickets at an average of 13.71 and scored 817 runs at 18.56.

The Australians toured England again that year, and Bobby Peel took six wickets in the first Test at Lord's.

Bobby Peel led the Yorkshire batting averages and came second in the bowling.

Bobby Peel came fourth in the team's bowling averages with 15 wickets at 18.86 and finished fifth in the batting averages with 229 runs at 25.44.

Bobby Peel played in all three Test matches, taking six wickets at 21.33, and scoring 134 runs at 26.80.

In first-class matches during 1892, Bobby Peel scored 772 runs at 19.79 and took 121 wickets at 16.80.

The Australians toured England , but Bobby Peel played in just one of the three Test matches.

Bobby Peel did not take a wicket, did little with the bat, and was left out of the team for the second Test.

In 1894, Bobby Peel scored 699 runs at 16.25, failing to score a half-century.

Bobby Peel was successful in the opening first-class matches of the tour.

Bobby Peel took five wickets in an innings against South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales; after three games, he had taken 23 wickets, and he and Briggs provided the main threat with the ball.

Against Victoria, Bobby Peel scored 48 and 65 with the bat.

Bobby Peel played a leading role in the first Test, which Wisden described as "probably the most sensational match ever played either in Australia or in England".

Several of the England team, including Bobby Peel, drank heavily in the night thinking the game was lost, but overnight rain drastically changed the nature of the pitch.

Bobby Peel had not sobered up when play was scheduled to start, although Stoddart had given him a cold shower to speed up the process, and arrived late.

Bobby Peel had slept through the overnight storm and was astonished when he saw the state of the pitch, suspecting someone had watered it.

One Australian newspaper reported that Bobby Peel "found the match rather a trying one, and came in fairly done up".

England won the second Test; after both teams' first innings were low-scoring, Bobby Peel, appearing at number six, batted for 150 minutes in the second innings to score 53 without hitting any fours.

Stoddart's 173 set Australia a big target, and Bobby Peel took four for 77 to bowl England to a 94-run win.

Australia won the third Test by 382 runs; Bobby Peel took four wickets in the game, but was dismissed in both innings without scoring.

In very favourable bowling conditions, Bobby Peel took three for 74 but Australia totalled 284.

Bobby Peel was the first player to score four successive ducks in Test cricket, a succession of failures not repeated until 1936, and this remained the record number of successive ducks until 1985.

Bobby Peel took four wickets in Australia's first innings, then scored 73 runs in England's first innings, sharing a 162-run partnership with Archie MacLaren.

Jack Brown scored a century to guide England towards a target of 297, and Bobby Peel eventually hit the winning runs.

Bobby Peel ended the series with 27 wickets at 26.70, second in the averages behind Tom Richardson, and 168 runs at 18.67, placing him sixth in the batting averages.

Bobby Peel led the Yorkshire bowling averages, and George Hirst became his regular partner opening the bowling.

In 1896, Bobby Peel performed the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets for the only time in his first-class career.

Bobby Peel came third in the Yorkshire batting averages, and often succeeded in scoring runs when the team were under pressure.

Bobby Peel shared a partnership of 292 for the eighth wicket with Lord Hawke.

The Australians played three Tests in England in 1896, but Bobby Peel only played in the final one.

Australia only needed a small total, but Bobby Peel believed that he could bowl them out.

Bobby Peel took six of the last seven Australian wickets at a cost of 23 runs to bowl England to victory; in recognition of this achievement, Stanley Jackson, a teammate in this game, gave him a gold watch-chain ornament.

Bobby Peel was less successful with the bat, scoring a pair .

In total, Bobby Peel played 20 Tests, scoring 427 runs at an average of 14.72 and taking 101 wickets at 16.98.

In January 1897, the Australian Fred Spofforth claimed in a letter to the Sporting Life that Bobby Peel occasionally threw the ball, an accusation he levelled at Tom McKibbin, an Australian bowler.

Bobby Peel was always known to be a heavy drinker, but his behaviour had been tolerated.

Bobby Peel's fame, brought about by his performances, made the problem worse.

In 1897, Bobby Peel had played regularly until July with some success.

Bobby Peel scored 115 against Leicestershire, and took eight for 53 against Kent.

Bobby Peel then suffered an injury in a match against Lancashire that caused him to miss around a month of cricket.

In Middlesex's first innings, Bobby Peel took five for 71, but on the third day, he appeared on the field drunk.

Bobby Peel said that he opened the bowling with Stanley Jackson and was eventually rested without a word being said to him.

Bobby Peel stated that he later slipped twice while fielding, but the cause was that the spikes on his boots were broken.

Bobby Peel was even more drunk than at breakfast, and Hawke ordered him from the field.

Bobby Peel replied that he was fine, and according to Hirst bowled a ball to demonstrate his fitness, but in his confusion did so in the wrong direction.

The historian Rowland Bowen, in an article called "Fresh Light on the Dismissal of R Bobby Peel in 1897", claimed that an "aged Yorkshireman of 85" told him that Bobby Peel had urinated and that this was a common practice then.

The 85-year-old had not used the word "urinated" but had actually said "pissed at the wicket", meaning that Bobby Peel was drunk on the pitch.

Bobby Peel, having concluded that the suspension would end his Yorkshire career, signed a contract to play for Accrington Cricket Club.

Bobby Peel told a newspaper that he regarded his suspension as unfair, that he had been given no opportunity to explain, and that he had taken the appointment with Accrington to provide for himself and his family.

Hirst told Thompson that Hawke was always sorry that Bobby Peel had to be sacked, and that whenever the pair met afterwards, they remained friends and that neither bore the other any animosity.

Bobby Peel remained popular with the people of Morley in the aftermath of his dismissal, and they supported him rather than believing the reports.

Bobby Peel made two further first-class appearances in 1897 after his suspension by Yorkshire.

Bobby Peel played in two end-of-season festival games at Hastings, first for the North against the South and then for the Players against the Gentlemen, but did little with bat or ball.

Bobby Peel ended his first-class career with 12,191 first-class runs at an average of 19.44 and 1,775 wickets at 16.20.

Bobby Peel took 80 wickets that season, but only received a third of his salary; the committee withheld the rest because of unspecified problems during the season.

Bobby Peel's contract was not renewed and he instead became the professional at Morley.

Pearson suggests that Bobby Peel's signing showed the clubs that big-name signings could bring benefits.

Bobby Peel accepted a position as a coach at Essex in 1899, and remained there until at least 1904.

Bobby Peel later became the landlord of a public house in Churwell.

Bobby Peel attended the funeral of Roy Kilner in 1928, and was one of many Yorkshire cricketers to attend the memorial service for Lord Hawke in 1938.

Bobby Peel continued to play cricket and coach locally into his seventies.

Bobby Peel was married in 1878; he and his wife, Annie Louise, were married for over fifty years and had four children, one of whom was killed in the First World War.

Bobby Peel lived until 1941, when he died at the house of his daughter.

Wisden said that as a bowler, Bobby Peel had a "fine length, easy action and splendid command of spin", which meant that he "was often a match-winner".

Bobby Peel consistently bowled a good length and varied the flight of the ball to deceive batsmen.

Bobby Peel bowled a quicker ball which, in contrast to his usual delivery, travelled in a straight line instead of turning.

When bowling on pitches where the ball came more slowly off the surface, Bobby Peel often bowled faster; this pace made it difficult for batsmen to score runs against him even when conditions were in their favour.

Bobby Peel generally opened the bowling, including when he played for England.

Bobby Peel was the first English bowler to take 100 Test wickets against Australia.

MacLaren stated that Bobby Peel thoroughly understood tactics and could spot weaknesses in a batsman's technique.

Frith suggests that he was sometimes involved in embarrassing situations; for example, when Ranjitsinhji invited him on a hunting trip, "Bobby Peel blasted eight barrels at a hare, removing its legs, an ear and much else before chasing the remnants of the animal into a neighbouring property, still firing away, until all life was extinguished".

Frith believes that Bobby Peel had a "perverse" character, exemplified by Lord Hawke's comment that he showed no pleasure at his many successes.