[1] He earned his place in the Yorkshire side in 1879 and, "before the season was over," wrote WG Grace (against whom he enjoyed conspicuous success), "had taken rank with the very best bowlers in England.

Despite a serious ankle sprain, which kept him out of action for a fortnight, Peate managed a new record wicket haul for a county-cricket season with 214 in 1882.

[3] His finest (and lowest) hour came in the Test Match against Australia at the Oval of August 1882, when he was the last man in to bat at the end of England's second innings, with his country needing only ten runs to win.

He arrived back in the dressing-room to be admonished for not having left the job to his better-equipped partner, the in-form Charles Studd.

Although less famous than the death notice of English cricket which appeared in The Sporting Times on 2 September 1882, another in similar vein was published on 30 August 1882 in C. W. Alcock's Cricket: a Weekly Record of The Game, reading:[4] Sacred to the memory of England's supremacy in the cricket-field which expired on the 29th day of August, at the oval: "Its end was Peate"There ought to have been many more years of good work ahead of him, but he put on a great deal of weight and showed a weakness for alcohol.