Robert Peel (12 February 1857 – 12 August 1941) was an English professional cricketer who played first-class cricket for Yorkshire between 1883 and 1897. Primarily a left-arm spin bowler, Peel was also an effective left-handed batsman who played in the middle order. Between 1884 and 1896, he was regularly selected to represent England, playing 20 Test matches in which he took 101 wickets. Over the course of his career, he scored 12,191 runs and took 1,775 wickets in first-class cricket. A match-winning bowler, particularly when conditions favoured his style, Peel generally opened the attack, an orthodox tactic for a spinner at the time, and was highly regarded by critics.
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, Peel became Yorkshire's main spinner. He had already played for England, touring Australia with two professional teams, although he did not play a Test in England until 1888. Over the following years he regularly took over 100 wickets each season and often played in the prestigious Gentlemen v Players matches. He was generally Yorkshire's leading bowler—until the emergence of George Hirst, he generally received little support from other members of the attack—and often among their leading batsmen. His best season in county cricket came in 1896, when he recorded the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets, and made his highest first-class score of 210. Among his notable feats in Tests, he bowled England to victory after they had followed on in Australia in 1894–95 and took six for 23 in his final Test. The first English cricketer to reach 100 wickets against Australia, in 1894–95 he also became the first player to fail to score in four successive Test innings.
As a player, Peel was very popular and admirers often entertained him socially; he became well known for liking alcohol. On the morning of the match that England won after following on, Peel was intoxicated and had to be sobered up. In 1897, he was suspended by Yorkshire for drunkenness during a match. Although it is unclear what exactly happened—Peel said he slipped when fielding, but Hirst later recalled that he came on the field drunk and when asked to leave, bowled a ball in the wrong direction—he never played for the county again. Decades later, a widely circulated story suggested that Peel urinated on the pitch before being sent away. Historians consider the story unlikely, and attribute it to a misunderstanding by its reporter. Peel continued to play and coach cricket for most of his life and in later years became associated with Yorkshire once again. Among his other jobs, he became the landlord of a public house and worked in a mill. He died in 1941 at the age of 84.
Early career
Yorkshire cricketer Peel was born in Churwell, a village close to Morley, on 12 February 1857.Hodgson, p. 57. He was the son of a miner, and Peel himself worked in the mines for a time.Pearson, Ch. 1: "Intent to Murder: Workington", Location 356. From the age of 16, he played with increasing frequency for the Churwell cricket team,Woodhouse, p. 74. and by 1882 was part of the Yorkshire Colts. At the time, Edmund Peate was the first-choice left-arm spin bowler in the Yorkshire team, and his presence restricted Peel's opportunities. An injury to Peate allowed Peel to make his first-class debut for Yorkshire against Surrey at Sheffield on 10 July 1882. Peel took nine wickets in the game, including five for 83 (five wickets taken while conceding 83 runs) in the second innings. Lord Hawke—who assumed the captaincy of Yorkshire later that seasonHodgson, p. 45.—subsequently described Peel's debut as one of the most impressive for Yorkshire.
Peel played regularly alongside Peate between 1883 and 1886. He 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. His obituary in Wisden Cricketers' Almanack in 1942 stated: "Yorkshire were singularly rich in bowling talent, so that [Peel] had to wait several years before attaining real distinction". Peel retained his place through his ability as a batsman and fielder; in his history of Yorkshire County Cricket Club, R. S. Holmes judges that Peel was "brilliant" as a fielder and that it was "probably the marked improvement in [his] batting which first secured him a place in the County eleven."Holmes, p. 59. He had occasional success with the ball, for example taking eleven for 87 in the match against Gloucestershire in 1884—a match in which Peate did not play. Meanwhile, his batting average gradually improved until it reached the mid-20s in 1887.
Test debut During the English winter of 1884–85, Peel was included in the team which toured Australia under the management of Alfred Shaw, Arthur Shrewsbury and James Lillywhite. English teams that toured Australia at this time were not composed exclusively of the best cricketers in England.Knox, p. 117. The 1884–85 English team, like most earlier tours, contained only professional cricketers; less usually, the team contained nine players who, critics judged, would likely have been in a full-strength England side.Knox, p. 144. Much of the cricket was overshadowed by off-field clashes with the Australian team that had toured England in 1884; the disputes mainly concerned each team's share of match receipts.Knox, pp. 144–58. Peel was required to bowl a large number of overs; in minor matches, mainly played against the odds (where the opposition teams included more players than the English team), he took 321 wickets at an average of less than five. In first-class matches, he was the leading wicket-taker with 35 wickets, but his average of 19.22 was relatively high.
During the tour, Peel made his Test debut and played all five matches. His first Test began on 12 December 1884. Opening the bowling, took eight wickets in the match; in the second innings, he took five for 51 on a pitch affected by rain. He 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. He was not selected in the next Test matches played by England, against Australia in 1886, and missed the next English tour of Australia, in the winter of 1886–87, again organised by Shaw, Shrewsbury and Lillywhite.Wynne-Thomas, pp. 28–29.
Leading bowler
Main Yorkshire spinner
In the mid-1880s, the Yorkshire team was generally inconsistent.Hodgson, pp. 45–51. In 1886, Lord Hawke became Yorkshire's full-time captain. One of his first actions, with the support of the Yorkshire committee, was to sack Peate early in the 1887 season. At the time, many professional cricketers drank heavily and the Yorkshire team had many players who liked alcohol. Peate had been the chief offender for some years, and while he remained Yorkshire's leading left-arm spinner, his disruptive influence and disregard for authority was having a negative effect on the team. The historian Mick Pope suggests that Hawke may have felt able to act as he knew that Peel was available as a replacement.Pope, pp. 103–04. With Peate unavailable, Peel began to play a leading role. In the 1887 season, a year in which good weather produced conditions generally in favour of batsmen, he took 85 wickets at an average of 17.32. He also improved his record with the bat, scoring 835 runs at 25.30. According to his Wisden obituary, he recorded at least two match-winning performances that season: against Kent he took five for 14 and scored 43 runs in a low-scoring game; in the match against Leicestershire he took eleven wickets for 51. Twice in 1887, Peel appeared for the professional Players in their prestigious match against the Gentlemen, the first time he had been selected for the team. He played regularly for them until 1897.
During the winter of 1887–88, the Melbourne Cricket Club organised another English tour of Australia. The team was mainly composed of amateurs, but Peel was included with three other professionals. At the same time, a rival English team, organised by Shaw, Shrewsbury and Lillywhite, also toured Australia. The resulting confusion affected the attendances at games and the financial success of both tours.Wynne-Thomas, pp. 30–33.Knox, p. 182. The lack of success for the Australian team in this period lessened the quality of Tests and, amid declining spectator interest, touring teams no longer generated profits.Knox, pp. 176–82. In his history of early international cricket, Malcolm Knox observes that "two England teams were coming when Australian cricket was not strong enough to host one". Peel took 49 first-class wickets on the tour, finishing second in the bowling averages for the team,Wynne-Thomas, p. 31. and scored 449 runs in first-class matches at an average of 34.53, which placed him second in the batting averages. Although various matches were played by both teams against combined Australian teams, only one official Test match was played on the tour. The best eleven players from both English teams combined to defeat an Australian team which had several leading players missing; later writers questioned whether the match should have the status of a Test.Knox, pp. 186–87. Peel took nine wickets in the match, including five for 18 in the first innings as Australia were bowled out for 42 runs.
Home Test matches In 1888, an unusually rainy summer led to wet pitches which made batting difficult.Knox, pp. 194–95. Peel took 171 first-class wickets, the first time he had passed 100 wickets in a season, at an average of 12.22. He also topped the Yorkshire bowling averages for county matches.Woodhouse, p. 115. His best performance came against Nottinghamshire, when he took eight for 12 in the first innings on the way to fourteen for 33 in the match; for the Players against the Gentlemen, he took six for 34. In the season, Peel scored 669 runs at 13.38. That year, an Australian team toured England and Peel was chosen for his first Test matches in England. The Australian team, missing several key players,Knox, p. 190. won the first Test match before England recovered to win the final two games.Knox, pp. 195–96. Playing all three Tests, Peel took 24 wickets at an average of 7.54. In the decisive third Test, he took seven for 31 in the first Australian innings and finished with match figures of eleven for 68. Wisden noted that Peel "bowled remarkably well" in the second Test; it stated that, in the third, "the Australians were helpless against Peel" and judged his overall performance "altogether admirable". Peel's performance in 1888 resulted in his selection, prior to the 1889 season, as one of Wisden's "Six Great Bowlers"; this was the first time Wisden had made the award which in later years became the prestigious Wisden Cricketer of the Year. The citation said: "During his early career [Peel] was contemporary with Peate, and naturally did not get the same chances that have fallen to his lot during the last two years. He 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."