In the 1897 season, Peel was suspended by Yorkshire for drunkenness. Alcohol was popular with many professional cricketers, and the careers of several Yorkshire players in this period, including Peate, had been ended for this reason. Peel was always known to be a heavy drinker, but his behaviour had been tolerated. His fame, brought about by his performances, made the problem worse. Derek Hodgson, in the official Yorkshire club history, writes: "A cheerful, gregarious man, took to hospitality and entertaining with alacrity and moved in such society, particularly in London, that when one of the foremost journalists of the day asked to see him he was fobbed off by a man who announced himself as 'Peel's secretary', adding: 'He does not like interviews and has little to say. He sent me to take his place.'" Hodgson observes: "It is not impossible, of course, that Bobby was either shy, or 'indisposed' at that particular moment", and suggests that Peel's downfall, like Peate's before him, was because he "was too often the toast of the town".