Football

Introduction

 * Peel first became interested in the sport when at public school in Shrewsbury, playing in the right-wing position. He continued to play unofficially, for example for the Radio 1 team, but did not follow professional football until he began supporting Liverpool FC. He also followed the fortunes of Ipswich Town (also referred to by him under their nickname 'The Tractor Boys'), since Sheila was a fan.

Liverpool FC

 * Peel began supporting Liverpool in 1950 when they played Arsenal in the FA Cup Final and lost 2-0 to Arsenal: this caused him to place a permanent ban on Arsenal supporters coming to Peel Acres (with the exception of Robert Wyatt and Alfie: this was "lifted" in the mid 1990s.
 * His long-standing idol from the team was Bily Liddell, whose portrait hung in the dining room at Peel Acres: an autograph signed on a newspaper flier by the player was kept in his father's old desk and john referred to it as 'perhaps the most sacred item I own.'
 * Sheila relates that when they first moved to Suffolk, John was a regular attendee at Liverpool's home ground of Anfield, until work commitments prevented him. They were both present at the Heysel Stadium Disaster on May 29 1985 at which 39 people died. He did not go to another match for four years as a result.

>UNDER CONSTRUCTION


 * Footnotes