Tom Nicol

Thomas Nicol (24 February 1870 – 10 June 1915) was a Scottish footballer who played for Burnley first as a centre forward and then as a full back in the 1890s, before later becoming a bowls champion in Southampton.

Football career

Burnley Nicol was born in Whitburn, West Lothian and after playing local football in Scotland with Mossend Swifts, he was one of several Scottish players recruited by Burnley. For his Burnley debut on 7 March 1891 he replaced leading scorer Claude Lambie, who had returned to Scotland, and scored a hat-trick in a 6–2 victory over Preston North End. Preston had won the Football League in each of the two preceding years, but the defeat at Turf Moor resulted in them finishing the 1890–91 as runners-up, two points behind Everton.

In 1891 a team representing Canada embarked on an extensive tour of Britain, playing over twenty games against both club and national teams. The game against Burnley took place on 31 October 1891 at Turf Moor, and at the time Burnley were lying eighth in the Football League. Despite fielding England goalkeeper Jack Hillman, Burnley were held to a 2–2 draw, even though Nicol twice giving Burnley the lead.

A few weeks later, Nicol was one of three goal-scorers in a 3–0 victory over Blackburn Rovers, this being the first league victory for Burnley against their local rivals, ensuring that his name would be entered "in any (Burnley) hall of fame".

On 9 January 1892, Nicol and fellow forward Alex McLardie both scored hat-tricks in a 9–0 victory over Darwen. For the 1891–92 season, Nicol was Burnley's top scorer, with 17 goals from 25 league appearances as they finished seventh in the table.

For the next two seasons, Nicol played at right-back before moving forward to outside-right for the 1894–95 season. Nicol again found his goal-scoring form and was the club's top-scorer for the season with 11 league goals from 22 appearances. He made a further contribution of eight goals in the 1895–96 season including a hat-trick in a 6–0 defeat of Blackburn Rovers on 13 April 1886. He made his debut on 2 October 1897, with Samuel Meston moving forward to right-half to accommodate him, thus displacing William McMillan, who had been ever-present in the previous season. The Saints also reached the 1898 FA Cup semi-final, where they were defeated by Nottingham Forest in rather controversial circumstances after goalkeeper George Clawley had his eyes "choked with snow" and conceded two goals in the final minutes of the game.

Nicol was "completely fearless, even reckless (and) usually won the ball irrespective of obstacles" and became "one of the finest backs ever to don the cherry and white shirt". and later took over a pub in Portsmouth.

Bowls Nicol became a bowls player of some repute and in 1907 he became a "knight" by winning the 133rd annual championship at the Southampton Old Bowling Green,

Honours Southampton Southern League championship: 1897–98 and 1898–99