Bobby Peel of Yorkshire was the second great left-arm spinner of his county after Edmund Peate, and quickly the better of the two. He made his first-class debut in 1882, became Yorkshire's first-choice slow left-armer when Peate was sacked for drunkenness in 1887, took 100 wickets a season for the next decade and was named one of the first six Wisden Cricketers of the Year in 1889. By 1888 he was already England's frontline spinner, sharing 27-wicket days with Lohmann at Lord's against Australia.
Yorkshire CCC under Lord Hawke (captain from 1883) was modernising fast in the 1880s. The committee was building a settled professional staff, but it had a problem with drink: Peate had been the first famous casualty, and Peel — to his eventual cost — was cut from similar cloth.
Peel's promotion to first-choice in 1887 came via Peate's disgrace, and he took the chance immediately. The 1888 summer's run of sticky pitches gave him three Tests in three weeks against Australia (Lord's, Oval, Old Trafford), and he took 24 wickets across them.
Bobby Peel was born at Churwell, near Leeds, on 12 February 1857 — making him already 25 by the time he made his first-class debut for Yorkshire on 10 July 1882, against Surrey at Sheffield. He took five for 83 in the second innings of that game and seemed an obvious successor to Edmund Peate, but Peate was Yorkshire's first-choice slow left-armer and Peel could not displace him.
For four seasons (1883-86) the two left-armers played alongside each other in the Yorkshire side, alternating workloads. Peel filled in when Peate was injured or out of form, and developed his game in county cricket while waiting for the senior position.
The break came in 1887. Peate, whose drinking had been a long-standing problem, was sacked by Lord Hawke after a major incident; Peel was promoted to the first-choice slow left-armer's role for both Yorkshire and (almost immediately) England. The wet summer of 1888 played to his strengths: in three Tests against Australia he took 24 wickets at less than eight runs apiece, including 11 for 68 in the match at the Oval. He passed 100 first-class wickets for the first time and was named one of the first six Wisden Cricketers of the Year for 1889 — all six being bowlers.
Peel's England career ran from 1884 to 1896, taking him on four tours of Australia and producing 101 Test wickets at 16.98 — at the time the lowest average of any Test bowler with 100 wickets. Like Peate before him, his career ended over drink: in 1897 he was sacked by Lord Hawke after appearing on the Yorkshire field at Bramall Lane while obviously drunk, an incident that became one of Yorkshire cricket's most retold stories.
Peel's bowling style was orthodox left-arm spin with a slightly higher action than Peate's, plus a fast yorker that he used as a surprise weapon. On rain-affected pitches his accuracy was extraordinary; on hard wickets his subtle changes of pace were enough.
10 Jul 1882: First-class debut v Surrey at Sheffield; 9 wkts in match.
1883-86: Plays alongside Peate at Yorkshire.
1884: First Test cap (Australia tour).
1887: Peate sacked; Peel becomes Yorkshire and England No.1 left-armer.
1888: 24 Test wickets in three Tests.
1889: Wisden Cricketer of the Year.
1894-95: 27 wickets in Stoddart's Australia tour.
Aug 1897: Sacked by Lord Hawke for drunkenness on the Bramall Lane field.
12 Feb 1857
Born at Churwell, near Leeds.
Jul 1882
Yorkshire debut, 9 wickets in match.
1884
England Test debut on Australia tour.
1887
Becomes Yorkshire and England first-choice left-armer.
1888
24 wickets in three Ashes Tests.
1889
Wisden Cricketer of the Year.
Aug 1897
Sacked by Lord Hawke at Bramall Lane.
12 Aug 1941
Dies at Morley, aged 84.
“Peel could bowl all day on a sticky wicket and never miss a length.”
Peel survived in club and league cricket after his sacking and lived to 1941, dying at Morley aged 84. His career figures — 1,775 first-class wickets at 16.20, 101 Test wickets at 16.98 — confirm him as one of the great late-Victorian bowlers, but the pre-Rhodes generation of Yorkshire spinners has always been overshadowed by what came after.
Yorkshire's most consistent left-arm spinner before Wilfred Rhodes, and England's frontline slow bowler through the late 1880s and 1890s. The 24 wickets in three Tests in 1888 made him a household name; the dismissal in 1897 ended a 15-year career in a single afternoon.
Peel and Peate together established Yorkshire's tradition of supplying England's frontline slow left-arm spinner — a line that ran on through Wilfred Rhodes (1899-1930), Hedley Verity (1930s), Johnny Wardle (1948-58) and Don Wilson. The Bramall Lane sacking became a Yorkshire moral fable, repeated almost annually in cricket writing for the next half-century.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.