Looking through a Wisden magazine for July 1982, I noticed an
article on Bobby Peel's final match for Yorkshire.
On the 18 August 1897 Yorkshire were playing Middlesex
at Bramall Lane . In the A.A.Thomson book "Hirst and Rhodes"
George Hirst supplied the details that on the final day Peel
was drunk and Hirst tried to keep him in the hotel but Bobby went
to the match and bowled at the sight screen instead of the
wicket and was told by Hawke to leave the field and never
to play for Yorkshire again.
What actually happened was that Yorkshire declared at 182 for 6 with
Middlesex beginning their second innings after lunch.
For Yorkshire ,the opening bowlers, unchanged for half
an hour,were F.S.Jackson and Peel .Eight bowlers in all
were tried ,and Peel's analysis was (7-1-15-0 ). Nevertheless
,Bobby did not bowl well ,and he was seen to slip and
fall, once when we was bowling and once while
fielding. There was nothing in the press reports to say
that he was sent off the field. Later Hawke held a meeting
with some committee members to express his dissatisfaction
with Peel. The outcome was the suspense of Peel for
the rest of the season.
Peel's version was that before going to the ground he had
drunk two small glasses of gin and water and at lunch
he had taken nothing. As for slipping, Bobby blamed
this not on the gin but on the condition of his left shoe
which he showed the reporter calling attention to the
fact that three of the spikes were bent.
Neither Hawke nor any member of the committee ,
he declared, had uttered a word of complaint to him
and the first inkling he received was when the secretary
paid him his wages and told him he would not be required
for the remainder of the season. His play had caused
dissatisfaction, and when Bobby demanded an explanation
he received the answer "you have had a glass too much"
Such was Peel's side of the story, but it was ignored,
and his suspension was permanent.
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