John Ernest Nichols (20 April 1878 – 29 February 1952), sometimes known as Jack Nichols, was an English professional sportsman who played

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

and

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

. As a

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

er he played five matches for

Worcestershire County Cricket Club Worcestershire County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Worcestershire. Its Vitality Blast T20 team has been rebranded ...

between 1902 and 1904, as well as making one first-class appearance for a Minor Counties representative side in 1912. He also played

Minor Counties Championship The NCCA 3 Day Championship (previously the Minor Counties Cricket Championship) is a season-long competition in England and Wales that is contested by the members of the National Counties Cricket Association (NCCA), the so-called national cou ...

cricket for

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

and

Staffordshire County Cricket Club Staffordshire County Cricket Club is one of twenty National Counties of English and Welsh cricket, national county cricket, county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the Historic counties of England, ...

s and was an influential cricket coach.John Nichols

CricInfo ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...

. Retrieved 2022-11-08. As a footballer, Nichols spent time contracted by

Bolton Wanderers Bolton Wanderers Football Club () is a professional football club based in Horwich, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, which competes in . The club played at Burnden Park for 102 years from 1895 after moving from their original home at Pike's ...

and

Bury Bury may refer to: *The burial of human remains *-bury, a suffix in English placenames Places England * Bury, Cambridgeshire, a village * Bury, Greater Manchester, a town, historically in Lancashire ** Bury (UK Parliament constituency) (1832–19 ...

and played professionally at

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third ti ...

level for

Loughborough F.C. Loughborough Athletic and Football Club were an English football club based in Loughborough, Leicestershire, that played in the Football League at the end of the 19th century. History The club started life as Loughborough Football Club in 188 ...

He served in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Early life

Nichols was born at

Acle Acle ( ) is a market town on the River Bure on the Norfolk Broads in Norfolk, located halfway between Norwich and Great Yarmouth. It has the only bridge across the River Bure between Wroxham and Great Yarmouth.Ordnance Survey (2005). ''OS Explorer ...

in 1878 and was brought up at

Wymondham Wymondham ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the South Norfolk district of Norfolk, England, south-west of Norwich, England, Norwich off the A11 road (England), A11 road to London. The River Tiffey runs through ...

, where his father, also John, was a publican and the groundsman of the town's sports ground, Kings Head Meadow.Yaxley P (2012
Anniversary of special cricket match at Wymondham's Kings Head Meadow
''

Eastern Daily Press The ''Eastern Daily Press'' (''EDP'') is a regional newspaper covering Norfolk, northern parts of Suffolk and eastern Cambridgeshire, and is published daily in Norwich, UK. Founded in 1870 as a broadsheet called the ''Eastern Counties Daily ...

'', 2012-08-30. Retrieved 2022-11-08. He played cricket for the town's cricket club and is first known to have played for Norfolk in 1898, appearing in two Minor Counties Championship matches as well as a match against

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

's Second XI.Hounsome p. 187.John Nichols
CricketArchive. Retrieved 2022-11-08.

Football career

Nichols played football for the amateur Norfolk County F.A. side before joining

in 1896, although he did not play a first-team match for the side. He played for

Loughborough Loughborough ( ) is a market town in the Charnwood borough of Leicestershire, England, the seat of Charnwood Borough Council and Loughborough University. At the 2011 census the town's built-up area had a population of 59,932 , the second larg ...

in 1898–99, making his debut in an

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

tie against

Mansfield Town Mansfield Town Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in the town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, England. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Nicknamed 'The Stags', they ...

in October 1898 and his league debut later in the same month in a

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

fixture against

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

. He played a total of 13 matches for the side, scoring three goals, before joining amateur side Loughborough Corinthians in January 1899.Nichols John Image 1 Bolton Wanderers 1896
Vintage Footballers. Retrieved 2022-11-09. Nichols spent the following season contracted at

but did not play a competitive match for the side. It is possible that his football career was curtailed after breaking his leg.

Pre-war cricket

After spending time on the playing staff at

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

in 1898, Nichols made his first-class debut for Worcestershire in a

County Championship The County Championship (referred to as the LV= Insurance County Championship for sponsorship reasons) is the domestic first-class cricket competition in England and Wales and is organised by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). It bec ...

match against

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

New Road, Worcester New Road is a cricket ground in the English city of Worcester. It has been the home ground of Worcestershire County Cricket Club since 1896. Since October 2017 the ground has been known for sponsorship purposes as Blackfinch New Road following ...

in July 1902, scoring seven runs and not taking a wicket in his four overs. Before making his Worcestershire debut, Nichols had played at Stourbridge Cricket Club since 1900 and for Worcestershire Club and Ground from 1901. He had also played for the county's Second XI earlier in 1902. Three first-class appearances in 1903, including opening the batting in two matches, saw him score a total of 19 runs during the season. He made his final appearance for Worcestershire the following season, making his highest first-class score of 13 against Yorkshire at

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

. By 1907 Nichols was playing Minor Counties cricket for Staffordshire where he "had considerable success" in the years before

. He appeared regularly for the side from 1909 until the war, playing in 69 Minor Counties Championship matches, scoring two

centuries A century is a period of 100 years. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A centennial or ...

and taking wickets each season. In 1912 he was selected for the Minor Counties representative side to play against the touring South Africans in a first-class match at

County Ground, Stoke-on-Trent The County Ground was a cricket ground in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. The ground, located along Station Road, was situated close to Stoke-on-Trent railway station. History The first recorded match on the ground was in 1885, when Stafford ...

, scoring six runs―his final first-class appearance. In his six first-class appearances he scored a total of 45 runs and did not take a wicket.

Military service

Nichols enlisted in November 1914 and served in the 2/8th (Liverpool Irish) Battalion of the

King's (Liverpool Regiment) The King's Regiment (Liverpool) was one of the oldest line infantry regiments of the British Army, having been formed in 1685 and numbered as the 8th (The King's) Regiment of Foot in 1751. Unlike most British Army infantry regiments, which were ...

. He rose to the rank of Company Sergeant Major and was discharged in April 1918, invalided out of the service.John Ernest Nichols , Service Record
Football and the First World War. Retrieved 2022-11-09.

Later cricket career

Following the war he became a cricket coach. Michael Falcon, Norfolk's captain and dominant player of the era, identified Nichols whilst he was coaching at

Bishop's Stortford College Bishop's Stortford College is a independent day and boarding school in the English public school tradition for more than 1,200 pupils aged 4–18, situated in a campus on the edge of the market town of Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, Englan ...

. Nichols was recruited by Falcon, and from 1921 until 1931 he played regular Minor Counties cricket for Norfolk, becoming the county's professional.Musk, p. 61. The Norfolk side of the time was considered strong enough by ''

The Cricketer ''The Cricketer'' is a monthly English cricket magazine providing writing and photography from international, county and club cricket. The magazine was founded in 1921 by Sir Pelham Warner, an ex-England captain turned cricket writer. Warner e ...

'' to be close to first-class standard, and Nichols was an important element of the side: in 1922 he took 39 wickets and scored 433 runs as Norfolk finished runners-up in the Minor Counties Championship, narrowly losing the final challenge match of the season to

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

at the

County Ground, Lakenham The County Ground in Lakenham, Norwich, Norfolk was a cricket ground for over two hundred years, hosting both first-class and List A cricket. Five first-class games, all involving touring international sides, were played here between 1912 and 19 ...

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

. As one of the Norfolk side's most talented cricketers he had to play as a

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...

at times as none of the county's other players were capable of keeping wickets effectively to the bowling of Falcon, an extremely fast bowler at Minor County level, even at this stage in his career. Nichols remained a mainstay of the county side throughout the 1920s. He scored 533 runs and took 28 wickets in 1925, including his only century for the side―a score of 127 against Staffordshire, made at the age of 47. He played into his fifties, making his final Minor Counties appearances for the side in 1931 before retiring as a player.Hounsome, p. 196. He continued to coach the side until 1938, and in 1932 took a Norfolk side to play a match against Wymondham, his first club side. In 100 Minor Counties Championship matches for Norfolk he scored 3,263 runs at a

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

of 24.35 runs per innings and took 224 wickets at a

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

of 19.55 runs per wicket. In 1927 he returned a

bowling analysis In cricket, a bowling analysis (sometimes shortened to just analysis, especially in the phrase innings analysis, and also referred to as bowling figures) usually refers to a notation summarising a bowler's performance in terms of overs bowled, h ...

of seven wickets for 14 runs from 12.2 overs against Leicestershire Second XI. Nichols also played for Norfolk in tour matches against the West Indies in 1923 and

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhanov, J ...

, the New Zealanders in 1927―scoring a half-century at the age of 49―and the South Africans in 1929. As well as coaching the Norfolk side, Nichols worked as a cricket coach at

Bracondale School Bracondale School was a private boys' school in the Bracondale area of Norwich, Norfolk. It existed from 1821 to 1993. History The school was opened on Bracondale Hill in July 1821 as an academy for boys between the ages of 8 and 16 years. It ...

, a small private school in Norwich. The Edrich brothers attended the school, and Nichols was involved in their coaching. He was described in

Geoff Edrich Geoffrey Arthur Edrich (13 July 1918 – 2 January 2004) was an English first-class cricketer born in Lingwood, Norfolk, who played in 339 matches for Lancashire between 1946 and 1958 as a right-handed batsman. Before his first-class career, he h ...

's obituary as an "exceptional cricket coach" and was considered influential, along with Michael Falcon, in developing the career of

Bill Edrich William John Edrich (26 March 1916 – 24 April 1986) was a first-class cricketer who played for Middlesex County Cricket Club, Middlesex, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), Norfolk County Cricket Club, Norfolk and England cricket team, England. Ed ...

.Musk, p. 98. Nichols stood in one first-class match as an

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

, the 1924 fixture between Minor Counties―although the side was selected by Norfolk and included seven of the county's players―and the touring South Africans played at Lakenham. He also umpired in Norfolk matches during the period after his retirement.Hounsome, p. 197. Nichols died at the age of 73 at

Thorpe Hamlet Thorpe Hamlet is a suburb of Norwich, to the east of the city centre, in the Norwich District, in the English county of Norfolk. It was constituted a separate ecclesiastical parish on 9 March 1852, from the civil parish of Old Thorpe, and in 191 ...

in Norwich in February 1952.

Notes

References

Bibliography

*Hounsome K (2015) ''A Game Well Played: a history of cricket in Norfolk''. Norwich: Hounsome. *Musk S (2010) ''Michael Falcon: Norfolk's Gentleman Cricketer''. Cardiff:

The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians (ACS) was founded in England in 1973 for the purpose of researching and collating information about the history and statistics of cricket. Originally called the Association of Cricket Statis ...

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nichols, John English cricketers Worcestershire cricketers English cricket umpires 1878 births 1952 deaths People from Broadland (district) Norfolk cricketers Staffordshire cricketers Minor Counties cricketers Loughborough Corinthians F.C. players Loughborough F.C. players Men's association football players not categorized by position English men's footballers Cricketers from Norfolk Territorial Force soldiers Military personnel from Norfolk King's Regiment (Liverpool) soldiers British Army personnel of World War I