Last updated 15:54, Wednesday, 27 February 2008

HE was the Bobby Dazzler of Cumbrian rugby – league and union – one of the most talented local players of his generation but, at the same time, his career could be described as mercurial and, at times, enigmatic.

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County star: Bobby scoring for Cumberland at Whitehaven’s Recreation Ground, with Paul Charlton in support

By today’s standards, Bobby Nicholson would be judged good enough to play for England at both union and league. If fate had dealt a different hand then international honours would have come his way when he was at his peak in league during the 1970s.

The former Whitehaven rugby union crackerjack half-back was turning on the style for Workington Town and Cumberland alongside other county stars such as Paul Charlton and Ian Wright who were already getting Great Britain honours, but Bobby got the wrong kind of breaks – injuries – and sometimes a dilemma over his position in the Town team – stand-off or centre.

A quicksilver footballer who could also kick goals, versatile and elusive, Nicholson had all the attributes of a top-class middle back.

He was smart enough to win county honours in both codes, but was he just a little bit ahead of his time?

The inescapable fact is that, when Bobby Nicholson turned professional for the princely sum of £4,000 in 1969, he was joining a club in transition.

Some of Town’s top players, such as Paul Charlton, Bill Kirkbride and Rodney Smith, formed the spine of the side but were off to pastures new.

Still plenty of good days to come in the blue and white but, by the time silverware had returned to Derwent Park in 1977, with Charlton returning to lift the coveted Lancashire Cup, Bobby had gone himself – down the long and winding road to Barrow.

Welshman Ray Wilkins wore the No 6 shirt, Wright and John Risman were in the centres, but how Bobby would have thrived behind the new all powerful Town pack boasting the Gorleys, Eddie Bowman, Big Jim Mills and, Derek Watts plus the two Egremont lads – Alan Banks and Ian Hartley.

Bobby Dazzler would have had a field day – Ray Wilkins was a good player – but on his day Nicholson, in my opinion, was different class.

It was certainly one of the regrets of Nicholson’s rugby life that he wasn’t part of it.

Did Tom Mitchell, Town’s proud president and the so-called Godfather of rugby league, also feel some pangs of regret?

For after his transfer to Barrow ands several months before the Lancashire Cup final defeat of Wigan, Mr Mitchell wrote Bobby an extraordinary, if enigmatic, personal letter.

It read: “I am truly sad that things did not work out so that your good father’s remark on the day of your signing – ‘give Workington Town all loyalty and be a one club man’ – could have become a reality.

“I watched you closely during your union days and concluded that you must do well in league, and so you did over quite a period.

“Then, either because of too rapid positional changes or injury or a combination of both, your progress slowed down. Maybe if you had got an extended run with us at out-half, especially when our pack started to settle down into a very good unit, things would have been different.

“Even so, I played little or no part in your move to another club because I had continued to hold to the faith I had in you as a player who would help the club to great heights in the first division.

“However, when things do happen, we have to make the best of them and I hope that this letter will have done something to restore the good relationship which always existed between the two of us in the dressing room and away from it.”

Nicholson has nothing but fond memories and high regard for Tom Mitchell, and he values Tom’s letter just as he does his treasured county caps in league and union.

After all, this was the man who made him an offer he couldn’t resist: Come to us and there’s £4,000 in the bank for you!

It was an awful lot of money back then and, as Bobby says; “It bought Mary and I our first little house in Whitehaven on Rannerdale.”

Bob Nicholson, senior, came from an amateur rugby league background at Hensingham before earning stardom as a Test forward in the Huddersfield team of all-stars, he was also a member of Gus Risman’s Indomitables who toured Australia in 1946, and it was ironic that his son should start his career in union.

“My dad, again,” he laughed. “Right from school he was a big influence and wanted me to get a good grounding in union first. If you’re any good, you’ll get more money for turning pro. He was proved right.”

Whitehaven’s lightning fast scrum-half had the rugby union world at his feet. He was the best No 9 in the county and beyond but, in those days, chances of going higher were limited unless you went to “the right school” or moved away to play for one of the big clubs.

He was a major force in a formidable Whitehaven team, graduating from an all-conquering Colts side in which he played stand-off because Joe Bonner, who later turned pro for Whitehaven, was scrum-half.

Bobby Blackwood was another of the Colts’ starlets so, too, was Ralph Calvin, who like Bonner became a county team mate in league.

Whitehaven won the Cumberland Cup in 1969, Bobby dazzling with a try and drop-goal in the final against Wigton, but it was his virtuoso performances in the Twin Counties’ side which attracted the league scouts.

“One game in the county championship, against Yorkshire, I was in direct opposition to Roger Pickering, the Bradford and England scrum half.

“I did well against him and the next step would be for me to get picked for the North West Counties, just like Les Moore and Rodney Singleton, who was a great scrum-half at Egremont.

“It was only after I signed for Town that I heard I was in line for selection otherwise I’d have hung on a bit longer, it might have been halfway to winning an England cap.”

One of his old mentors at The Playground, Bill Anderson, still asks the question: “With a big game coming up against Carlisle, why didn’t Bobby wait another week before signing for Town?”

“It all seems such a long time ago,” says Bobby. “The rugby league scouts were out and about running the rule over me but Tom Mitchell came to our house on Snebro (Mirehouse).

“He said he’d been following my union career closely and asked if I fancied coming to Workington. The money was on the table so I took it.”

What about Whitehaven, though, your home town club? – “Well, my dad was the Whitehaven chairman at the time and he thought if I signed for them, with him being in that position, if it didn’t work out it might cause a bit of controversy.

“Anyway, it was Workington who came up with the deal.” So off he went to Derwent Park.

“Training was a lot harder, more like playing in a match sometimes. They used to throw the ball at your feet to see what you were made of.”

Bobby was certainly a big capture for Town as the size of the signing-on fee suggests – but an even bigger one was soon to follow in the shape of Ken Goodall, the pride of Ireland and the new golden boy of British rugby union.

“It was in April 1970,” recalled Bobby. “Goodall made his debut against Blackpool Borough on Derwent Park, and I was happy to be on the same field. Big Ken scored a sensational try, going about 80 yards.

“He was a forward who ran like a back and was a good tackler but, boy, he could really gallop. What a great asset he was to Workington, it’s just a pity that Ken got a spinal injury and had to pack in well before his time.”

Goodall took to league like a duck to water, but Bobby? – “I suppose I did. It seemed to come naturally, I would get the ball and just run.”

Pace was definitely one of Bobby’s greatest assets from his early days at Richmond School in Whitehaven.

“I used to do a bit of sprinting at Keswick and Grasmere Sports. My dad had also been a footracer and he always drummed it into me that the first 10 yards was important in rugby.

“He always talked about Reg Gasnier, the great Australian centre, who had the terrific speed to make the break and then get the ball away.

“I couldn’t have been in a better company at Workington where I was playing alongside Ian Wright, who could run like the wind, and Alan Tait, whose Workington-schooled son, also Alan, became a dual international.

“On one wing we had Keith Davies, who was a flying machine, and Alan Sewell from Whitehaven, a strong runner, on the other. Both Keith and Ian Wright were a couple of years older than me and played for Great Britain under-24s.”

Corky (Ian MacCorquodale) then came along and relieved Bobby of any regular goal-kicking duties.

“We used to joke he never had to have his kit washed, but he won a lot of games for us with his phenomenal goal-kicking, he was all right was Corky.

“We scored a lot of tries for Corky to convert and had a lot of individual brilliance but there were too many comings and goings for us to settle as a team.”

But one report read: “Without doubt, a cert for Great Britain selection in the next two or three years is this brilliant back Bobby Nicholson.” Another bemoaned the fact that some of the county’s top players, including Les Moore and Paul Charlton at that particular time, were being ignored by the international selectors.

Just as in the other code, it was Nicholson’s performances in the county championship against the cream of Lancashire and Yorkshire that made the pundits sit up and take notice, especially once against Lancashire when he outshone Billy Benyon, one of the Great Britain centres.

“I did have a stormer against Benyon but I always felt I didn’t have the stature to play centre. My physique seemed to be best suited to stand-off where I had the acceleration off the mark to create a break and put people with the pace and power of Ian Wright through.”

Missing out on Town’s Lancashire Cup glory was a big regret; another was losing the chance to join Warrington and line-up with the incomparable Alex Murphy, the Wire’s player coach who wanted to take Bobby to Wilderspool. Town refused to let him go for a penny less than £10,000.

“Harry Walker and George Graham (Workington directors) wouldn’t sell Nicholson for the figure quoted by Warrington,” said one report, adding: “If a club came along and offered 10 grand they would have to seriously consider it for the county centre.”

“It was the year Warrington went on to win the Challenge Cup, I missed out again,” said Bobby with a wry smile.

“I enjoyed playing against the likes of Roger Millward, Steve Nash and David Watkins but I think Murphy was the greatest, even at the back end of his career. To think I might have had the chance to play with him.”

Do you think you did yourself justice? – “If they’d kept me at stand-off I think I would have done.

“Billy Ivison was coach when I signed for Town and Eric (Ekky) Bell was the biggest influence on me. After that Eppie (Gibson) came in and saw me as more of a centre, but I didn’t feel as comfortable there as No 6.”

It was in 1977, just as another great Town side was knitting together, that Bobby left for Barrow.

“Damaging my elbow knocked me back, then my father became ill and it was a big blow when he died.

“At the same time, Big Jim Mills arrived at Workington and I think the club raised some of the money to buy him by selling me and Tommy Thompson to Barrow.

“We travelled down from Whitehaven with “Spanky” McFarlane and Ralph McConnell, the county centre from Cleator Moor, and also “Smiler” Allen.

“We used to have some good laughs. I had three years at Craven Park until I did my Achilles at Huddersfield where my dad played most of his career until he finished at Whitehaven.”

Would you like to play in Super League and summer rugby? – “Oh, aye, I was a dry ground player and I think I could have run with my head up today.

“In my day, I had to drop my head into the shoulders a bit as you had to learn to protect yourself. It was a bit of a blood sport, wasn’t it?”

At Barrow, he was coached by one of the hardest of the lot, Frankie Foster. “Frank didn’t take any lip,” he recalls.

But, back or forward, Bobby reckons there was no one more uncompromising than Dennis Jackson.

“I played with him for Cumberland, it was better to be on his side than against him.

“No wonder they called him Stonewall – he was that hard. One Boxing Day, I was playing for Town at Barrow but I was only on the field for five minutes when he got to me one way or the other, but pound for pound, Dennis was one of the best around.”

So too was Bobby but his game was more subtle – and it was truly a game of two halves, the union and the league.