Peter

Peter was a black cat who spent his life at Lord's Cricket Ground, the London home of cricket, where he became a familiar and much-loved fixture around the pavilion and grounds. For a dozen years, from 1952 until his death in 1964, he prowled the outfield edges, dozed in the pavilion and kept the ground's rodent population in check — a working cat who had made one of the world's most famous sporting venues his home.

What makes Peter remarkable is the honour paid to him when he died. The 1965 edition of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack — the revered annual reference book known as the 'Bible of Cricket', whose obituary pages are normally reserved for the game's great players and administrators — carried a short but genuine obituary for him. It recorded that 'Peter, a cat, of great character' had died in November 1964 aged twelve, noting that he had been a well-known cricket-watcher at Lord's, where he spent most of his life.

To be memorialised in Wisden alongside the game's human legends is an honour almost no animal has received, and it cemented Peter's small place in cricketing folklore. He remains a favourite piece of trivia for fans — proof that a humble ground cat, simply by being a creature of great character in the right place, can earn a line in the sport's most hallowed record.