Name: James Nicholls
A.k.a: Jimmy Nicks, The Judge, Pickles
Lookalikes: Goes out to bat like Charlton Heston strapped on to his horse in El Cid
Best Batting: 93
Best Bowling: n/a
Champagne Moment: Set the tone for years of inter-Cavalier togetherness with his early comment, ‘The only good Bogey is a dead Bogey’. That’s the mark of the man.
Profile: His birth was a medical first – was already 41-years-old when he appeared from his mother’s womb, clutching his back and a half-smoked Silk Cut. Soon matured into leading school bully at first Wood End and then Roundwood Park, where he and Daniel ‘Grunds’ Mundy led the field in finessing the perfect Dead Leg. A leader of men and setter of trends: first to go tooled up to a St Georges fight; first to ‘feed the horses’ with a girl; first to ‘enjoy’ Gill Cook on that infamous night; first to realise that education was rubbish and divert his attentions to something far more financially rewarding. A hugely promising Cavaliers career was sadly curtailed by a crippling back injury, dicky ticker and massive smack habit. Excellent wicket-keeper and stubborn, resolute batsman, he still holds the record of second highest Cavs knock. The Cavaliers now have to be satisfied with one sighting per year of this former great, much like seeing George Best once in a while on Parky, or Mohammed Ali shakily lighting the Olympic flame, but his reputation lives on and will haunt the Cavaliers through the ages.

- M Richell 06/2004