AS he reflects on 50 years since his Warrington Wolves debut, Mike Nicholas MBE says he has no regrets with how his life has panned out.
Nicko has never looked back since leaving Welsh rugby union club Aberavon and his oil refinery chief safety officer job to turn professional with The Wire in 1972 – a time when a player was ostracised for switching to the 13-man paid ranks up north.
One of Stockton Heath’s greatest characters, he can now point to having had significant club and senior international achievements in rugby league, falling in love with a town that he has called home ever since, raising a family, making lifelong friendships, running numerous successful businesses as well as giving back to the sport and community behind the scenes.
Despite growing up in rugby union and getting close to an ultimately elusive senior Welsh cap, the 76-year-old grandfather says he was destined to play rugby league and doing so with a Warrington club he had felt connected to long before its chiefs came knocking on his door.
He recalls reading about Warrington’s world record try scorer Brian Bevan in the 1950s and seeing pictures of the team playing in finals at Manchester City’s Maine Road with huge crowds in attendance.
It left an indelible mark on him despite the sport being taboo in South Wales and when he knew rugby league was where his future lay and did his homework on the club and the town, he saw so many similarities to Aberavon – like the physical style of play, both clubs established in 1876, Warrington’s wire industry and Aberavon being a steel town.
He decided to call in at Wilderspool for the Wire versus Wigan game in 1972 on the way back from playing in a sevens tournament in Scotland.
After popping his head into the changing rooms to say hello to former Aberavon players Bobby Wanbon (a man Nicko considers to be like an older brother), Frank Reynolds, Clive Jones and Dennis Curling, player-coach Alex Murphy asked him to train with the club for the rest of the week and play in a trial game. The rest, as they say, is history.
Nicko says he soon settled in the town and although he had numerous offers to go to other clubs prior to and during his time with The Wire he was not interested and was honoured to become the team’s captain.
The then fitness fanatic brought a strong skillset to the team having played in the half backs and pack in rugby union, and he also became known as the team’s enforcer – the man to sort out any opposition nonsense on the field which led to him being sent off 15 times.
“I’ve always felt connected to the club generally and more so I feel like a proper Warringtonian,” said Nicko, who ranks the Challenge Cup Final Wembley win of 1974 and beating the Aussies with The Wire in 1978 as his highlights.
“I’ll always be a Welshman, I’ll always be an Aberavon boy but I’m a true Warringtonian as well.
“I’ve been here 50+ years and made a lot of friends here. I have no regrets moving here and I had quite a lot of success.
“The time I was at Warrington I think the team figured in about 13 finals. I didn’t play in them all, but figured in quite a few of them. It was quite a halcyon period for the club.
“I’ve done a lot up here since then with the sport behind the scenes and in terms of charity, and I’m very proud of being associated with the town.
“It’s a tough town, but it’s also an honest town. I think that’s the way I played.
“I know had a lot of indiscretions with red cards but it was a lethal game then, it was a bad game. It was a really dangerous game to play and I would never have let my kids play it when I was playing.
“I knew straightaway deep down that rugby league was my game. My build lent itself to the way I played and I would have been even better now with an extra five yards of pace."
When he arrived in Warrington part of the deal was employment with Lockers, where he felt he learned a lot about what Warringtonians would expect of him.
"I've always felt an affinity with the Warringtonians having felt it from the terraces and during an 18 months spell at Lockers No4 wire weaving shed where it was the innate honesty of the workforce that I recognised and identified with - the work ethic and alacrity of the women who operated 5 or 6 looms simultaneously - so producing performances as much on the pitch would be expected and nothing less; you can't pull the wire over our ultras eyes, no room for shirkers who are soon found out. This I hoped would be reflected in my style of play if a bit too robustly."
The trial game he was offered with Warrington was an A team game against Barrow at Wilderspool and because The Wire's reserves had been playing well and had a competition coming up a photographer was in attendance to grab a picture of the team.
Nicko quickly realised he could not afford to have photographic evidence of his rugby league game in case he didn't go on to sign for the club and then returned to South Wales to continue in rugby union, which could have meant him being banned if found out.
"I’ll never forget it because I thought 'what am I going to do now?' – either run for the dug-out or keep my head down. So I just kept my head down," he said.
But he did sign for The Wire the next day and added: “To be honest, it didn’t take me that long to settle into rugby league.
"I just wanted to do well and get in the first team. Basically, while I learned the game I was taking on as much work as I could during games while picking up the niceties of the game."
Reflecting on his maiden first-team appearance, Nicko said: “I know my debut was against Barrow. I’ll never forget it, because I hadn’t been injured for three or four years at Aberavon and never missed a game although I’d played a few with injuries.
“And then my first game for Warrington against Barrow I got injured. Little scrum-half Frankie Jones did a Cumberland throw on me. I resisted and I did the medial ligament in my knee, so I was out then for about two or three weeks.
> READ: More about Mike Nicholas' debut for The Wire
“But you weren’t out for long with Murph. After doing my cruciate at Wembley (which cost him a place on the Great Britain tour) I was back within four months – it takes nine months now with an operation.
“A big thing with me was training and fitness. I used to train for three quarters of an hour on my own before I went training with the club."
Nicko was fortunate to play alongside some other Wire greats, including his fellow countryman Bobby Wanbon, who, like Nicko, after settling into Warrington decided to stay here and they remain bosom buddies to this day.
But Nicholas felt a particularly strong partnership on the field with an England international from Leigh.
“I loved playing with Tommy Martyn," said Nicko.
"He was my soulmate at Warrington. We knew that when me and Tommy played in harness, we always had a chance, and we proved that against the Aussies when we beat them at Wilderspool in 1978.
“It was all lost in translation with our Leigh and Welsh accents though, because we couldn’t understand each other. But once we got over the touchline it was perfect harmony."
Nicko continued to express his admiration for Warrington, its townsfolk and its Super League club.
“Wherever I go I’m so proud of representing our club and being associated with it," he said.
"I love the club so much and I promote it as much as I can wherever I go.
“Warrington has been a great experience for me. I love the town and I’ve been very happy here. Stockton Heath has been important, because I’ve more or less been in Stocky for that length of time.
“I had several businesses, I had the cab rank Wire Wheels, mini buses, the garage on Walton Road, video shops, events.
“I’ve done a lot of care in the community, starting up with Rugby League Cares. In social terms, I’ve looked out for people, keep an eye on a lot of people. Having a cup of coffee and a chat with people who perhaps might be struggling and I enjoy it.
“There’s been a lot of stuff off the field in terms of helping people and I’m proud of that and I will always continue to do that."
Nicko admits that his time on the field – for Aberavon, Warrington, Cardiff City Blue Dragons (six appearances in 1981-82), Wales and various other representative teams – has not come without a price.
“I’ve been struggling a bit lately myself in terms of mobility," he said.
“My knees are going a bit and I’ve got quite a few tremors, damage from playing. I’m like Shakin’ Stevens some days.
“That’s the game. If you play over 500 games over 30 years there’s going to be some damage somewhere. At the moment I’m on medication but I carry on regardless.
“I’m still keeping active as much as I can. I’m still involved with the Welsh set-up. I’m still hands-on at senior level and president of Wales Rugby League. I’ve been behind North Wales Crusaders, who I’ve been working with behind the scenes. I’m behind the scenes everywhere."
A hot topic in rugby of both codes for a while now is concussions sustained in matches and its impact on players later in their lives.
There is greater understanding in this area these days and protocols are strict now, with players who receive head injuries in the professional game being required to leave the field and undertake an assessment by a doctor. If the head test is failed a player must take a step back for 11 days.
Nicko recalls how player welfare was different in his day, saying: "We learned to live with concussions.
"One of the reasons I finished playing was because I was getting blackouts on the field, heavy tackles close together and I was running out the other side with cloud and all that.
"You did your own neurological analysis then and I wouldn’t have thought anything of it when I was younger.
"Stuff like you go home and have a lie down and go to bed and the room’s spinning round like the Magic Roundabout.
"We used to laugh me and Kevin Ashcroft – "Have you been on the Magic Roundabout this week?"
"I played concussed and got man of the match once. It was like as if I was playing in a telephone box and everybody was outside.
"And then there was stuff like backing up, playing in a Friday A team game and then playing on a Sunday.
"Toughest scene in the world I reckon."
Talking of tough, Nicko spoke about the two times he got sent off in his debut 1972/73 season with The Wire.
"I got sent off on Boxing Day against Leigh, the fact being I didn’t know the difference between league games and local derbies – with the tempo and the vociferous crowds," he said.
"I’ll never forget that Tony Barrow (who later became Wire coach) flew in and nearly decapitated Chissy (Dave Chisnall).
"I put that down to the fact that they were both from St Helens and there was a bit of rivalry. So I ended up fighting with his brother Frankie.
"I got sent off, Tony Barrow got sent off, Chissy recovered, and I got a couple of games.
"Then I went through the season playing up until about Good Friday and I got sent off again against Widnes in another local derby.
"That was a bit clinical actually and I wondered after that game whether I’d made the right decision or not.
"I got a short ball off Parry Gordon and got clattered under the posts. I was on all fours and Bob Blackwood gave it to me and I had to go off and get my mouth stitched.
"Then Murphy sent me back on and I just zeroed in then on Bob Blackwood and just flattened him.
"I went into the changing rooms, showered and got in my MGB and went home to Wales thinking ‘what the hell is this about?’.
"The next day, the Saturday, Aberavon were playing London Welsh which they always did on the Saturday afternoon at Easter.
"I was stood outside and they wouldn’t let me in the clubhouse because I'd turned professional. My old teacher banned me from the clubhouse and asked me to leave."
But generally, looking back over his 50 years in Warrington so far, Nicko concluded: “With hindsight, I don’t regret anything with the fact I played for a club I love, I’m still around, I have family and wouldn’t wish for anything else. It’s been a good adventure for me, a journey that I would do again.
“I did more than ok, but I’d do it even better now. I wouldn’t have drunk so much early on.
"No regrets whatsoever. I’ve loved the trip I’ve been on and I hope I can stay on it for a bit longer.”
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