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School teacher Peter Squires was one of several players of his generation, including the likes of Dusty Hare, Alan Old and Alastair Hignell, to have excelled at both rugby and cricket. Indeed, in addition to winning 29 caps for England at rugby, Squires also represented Yorkshire who at that point were very much a force to be reckoned with in County cricket. Peter's debut came at the age of 22 in a 14-6 win over France in 1973, and he scored the first of his six international tries in a 20-13 defeat of Scotland in his next match. Later in the year, Squires also touched down in England's 16-10 victory over New Zealand in Auckland to augment tries by Stack Stevens and Tony Neary.
The following year Peter played in all four matches of the Five Nations which included a final day defeat of Wales at Twickenham. During the match Peter and David Duckham were involved in a race for the line with former international sprinter JJ Williams who claimed to have touched down first. However, the referee ruled against Wales and England won 16-12. In 1975 Peter again played in all four Championship matches as well as both tests on tour in Australia. Squires scored a try in each game of the mini series, but England went down to a 2-0 series defeat. He was able to gain revenge on Australia in the new year, but did not find the try line this time as England won 23-6. Unfortunately, Peter's Five Nations campaign only lasted one match when he was taken off with a broken arm against Wales at Twickenham.
After the arm healed, he went on to play in all four Five Nations matches for the remaining three seasons of his career, his last appearance coming in a 27-3 hiding by Wales. Peter also represented the British Lions in 1977, playing in the first test at Wellington, a match that New Zealand won 16-12. (Jon Collins)
Peter played 49 first class games for Yorkshire, scoring 1271 runs with a top score of 70.
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