HALL OF FAME

Ian Peebles was born in Aberdeen, and educated at Glasgow Academy. He was destined to only play once for Scotland, but he learnt his skills in the lower reaches of the domestic game.

lan had such a remarkable cricket career and life that editorial discretion might choose him for an all-time representative Scottish eleven on the grounds of his personal charisma and variety of life experience alone.

Peebles developed his skills with Oxford University and Middlesex. In 1929, he made his mark with 107 wickets at 19 apiece, and when Bradman strode through the test matches of 1930 with scores of 131, 254 and 334, taking the country by storm and overwhelming the English bowling attack, Peebles was called up for the fourth test at Manchester.

As he says so well “To a boy in Scotland, it was a faraway dream. that had become hope, then a probability, only to come true”. The press had fostered the idea of a personal duel between Peebles and Bradman; the first ball – a googly – whistled just over the Don’s middle stump; at 10, Bradman snicked a leg-break to slip, where Hammond dropped a simple catch; in his next over, Bradman came down the wicket to drive, but edged the ball to second slip, where Duleepsinhji took the catch. Bradman was out for 14 and the newspaper hoardings shouted, “PEEBLES DOES IT!”