Controversies in 1897

6 incidents documented

Bobby Peel Sacked by Yorkshire — Drunk on the Field, 1897

Yorkshire v Middlesex

1897-08-18

On 18 August 1897, Yorkshire's left-arm spinner Bobby Peel — at that point England's most successful slow bowler and a 100-Test-wicket man — turned up drunk on the third day of a Championship match against Middlesex at Bramall Lane. Lord Hawke ordered him from the field, and the Yorkshire committee suspended him for the rest of the season. Peel never played for Yorkshire again. The decision opened the door for the 19-year-old Wilfred Rhodes, who would take 4,184 first-class wickets across the next 33 years.

#bobby-peel#1897#lord-hawke

⭐Serious

Ranjitsinhji's 175 at Sydney — Batting with Quinsy, 1897-98

Australia v England

1897-12-13

Ranjitsinhji arrived in Sydney for the First Test of the 1897-98 Ashes with quinsy, lost 12 pounds in three days, and was excused from the field for the start of the match by rain. When he batted, weakened and at number seven, he made 175 in 223 minutes — then the highest Test score by an England batsman in Australia. England won the Test by nine wickets. Australia would win the rubber 4-1, but Ranji's Sydney innings is often cited as his greatest.

#ranjitsinhji#1897#sydney

⭐Moderate

Lancashire's First Title — 1897 County Championship

Lancashire CCC

1897-08-30

Lancashire won their first official County Championship in 1897, narrowly edging Surrey, with a bowling attack of Briggs, Cuttell, Mold and Hallam taking 420 wickets between them. Captain Archie MacLaren — the same MacLaren of the 424 at Taunton in 1895 — averaged 41 with the bat. The 1897 title broke Surrey's hold on the early Championship and is the only one of Lancashire's nine official Championships from the 19th century.

#lancashire#1897#county-championship

🥊Moderate

Stoddart's Lost 1897-98 Tour — Captain in Mourning

England (Stoddart's XI)

1897-12-13

The 1897-98 Ashes tour of Australia, captained by Andrew Stoddart for the second time, became the most personally bleak overseas English tour of the century. News of his mother's death reached him before the First Test; he stood down from the first two Tests and let Archie MacLaren lead. Stoddart returned for the Third and Fourth Tests, made 17, 24, 9 and 25, was barracked at Sydney, and walked off the cricket field for the last time. The tour was the high tide of his unravelling — he died by suicide in 1915.

#andrew-stoddart#1897#1898

⭐Moderate

Ranjitsinhji's 'Jubilee Book of Cricket' — The First Modern Cricket Manual, 1897

England, Sussex, India

1897-06-22

Published in June 1897 to coincide with Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, Ranjitsinhji's Jubilee Book of Cricket was the most ambitious cricket manual ever produced and the first to be illustrated with photographs. Dedicated to the Queen, the 474-page volume codified Ranji's leg-glance technique, set out the first modern explanation of batting against pace and spin, and remained the definitive cricket coaching book for thirty years. Ranji's ghost-writer was the cricket journalist C.B. Fry.

#ranjitsinhji#1897#jubilee-book

🥊Serious

George Lohmann's South African Exile — The Best Bowler in the World Goes Home to Die, 1897

Surrey, Western Province

1897-09-15

In 1897, George Lohmann — Test cricket's most efficient bowler ever, with 112 wickets at 10.75 — moved permanently to the British Cape Colony. He had been diagnosed with tuberculosis in late 1892 and had survived through annual winters in South Africa; the disease had progressively worsened. He played one full first-class season for Western Province in 1897-98, returned to England in 1901 to manage a South African tour, and died at Matjiesfontein on 1 December 1901 aged 36. His Test bowling average remains the lowest in cricket history.

#george-lohmann#1897#tuberculosis