John Fairless William Nicolson (born 19 July 1899 – 18 December 1935) was a South African

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 ...

er who played in three

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in 1927–28. Nicolson was educated at Oxford University, where he played a lot of club cricket, but made only one

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 ...

appearance, for the university against the

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in 1923. But in South Africa, he became a fairly regular player for Natal for five years from 1923 to 1924 as a left-hand opening batsman. His obituary in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' stated that he was "skilful and untiring in defence and could hit hard on the leg side". His best season was 1926–27, when he scored the only three centuries of his career. They included an unbeaten 252 against

Orange Free State The Orange Free State ( nl, Oranje Vrijstaat; af, Oranje-Vrystaat;) was an independent Boer sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeat ...

at Bloemfontein in which he shared a first-wicket stand of 424 with

Jack Siedle Ivan Julian "Jack" Siedle (11 January 1903 – 24 August 1982) was a South African cricketer who played in 18 Test cricket, Test matches from 1927–28 to 1935–36. Family background and personal life Born on 11 January 1903 in Berea, Durban, ...

. Nicolson's score was, at that time, the highest ever made in South Africa and the stand remained the South African record for the first wicket until January 2020. Nicolson was picked for the third Test against Captain Stanyforth's 1927–28

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touring team. He made 78 in the second innings, which was his highest Test score. He retained his place in the two remaining matches of the series, but was less successful in domestic South African cricket in the following season, and was not picked for the tour of England in 1929. Nicolson retired after a couple of matches in 1929–30. At the time of his death, he had been on the staff of Mourne Grange School at Kilkeel in

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for three years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nicolson, John 1899 births 1935 deaths South Africa Test cricketers South African cricketers Oxford University cricketers KwaZulu-Natal cricketers South African Rhodes Scholars Alumni of Hertford College, Oxford