The cricket writer A. A. Thompson relates a different story told to him fifty years later by Hirst, who played in the match. According to this account, Hirst was having breakfast when Peel came in drunk. Anxious that Peel would be seen, and worried about bringing the team into disrepute, Hirst forced Peel to return to bed and went to the ground, where he told Lord Hawke that Peel had been taken ill in the night and would not be able to play. Hawke promised to see Peel that evening and took the twelfth man onto the field. According to Thompson, when Hirst went onto the field, he saw "with dawning dismay that there were not eleven fieldsmen present but twelve. There, his face red, his cap awry, the ball in his hand, stood Peel". Peel was even more drunk than at breakfast, and Hawke ordered him from the field. Peel replied that he was fine, and according to Hirst bowled a ball to demonstrate his fitness, but in his confusion did so in the wrong direction. Peel was then led from the field. After falling asleep in the hotel, he was advised by Hirst to apologise to Lord Hawke, but refused, claiming that he was indispensable to the team and would be recalled.