Guy Oliver Nickalls

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Guy Oliver Nickalls
Born April 4, 1899(1899-04-04)
Died April 26, 1974
Education Eton college and Magdalen College, Oxford
Occupation rower
Parents Guy Nickalls
Not to be confused with his father, British rower and Olympic gold medalist, Guy Nickalls.
Olympic medal record
Men's Rowing
Silver 1920 Antwerp eights
Silver 1928 Amsterdam eights

Guy Oliver Nickalls (April 4, 1899 – April 26, 1974), also known as Gully Nickalls, was a British rower who competed in the 1920 Summer Olympics and in the 1928 Summer Olympics.

Educated at Eton college and Magdalen College, Oxford, Gully came from a rowing family. His grandfather, Tom Nickalls, was one of the founding members of London Rowing Club; his father Guy Nickalls also raced for Oxford and Britain; and his uncle Sir Harcourt Gold was chairman of Henley Royal Regatta from 1945 to 1952 and Chairman of the ARA from 1948 to 1952 (Gully's mother was Gold's sister).[1].

Gully followed in his uncle's footsteps and was Chairman of the ARA during the 1950s, the period when the ARA amalgamated with the NARA and finally ending the gentleman / tradesman amateur split in the UK. He was also a steward of Henley regatta - his silver Stewards badge now fittingly held by Sir Steve Redgrave, the only person to have surpassed his father's record of seven wins in the Goblets.

In 1920 he was a crew member of the British eight, which won the silver medal.

Eight years later he won his second silver medal again as part of the British eight.

He was a member of Leander Club, but in the 1928 season rowed with the Thames Rowing Club first eight, which won the Grand Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta and then represented Great Britain at the Olympics.

Gully competed in the winning Oxford crew in the 1923 boatrace, and when the fledgling world of outside sport broadcasts covered the event for the first time on 2nd April 1927, Guy became the first ex-sportsman to broadcast from an outside broadcast mike. The BBC had hired the launch Magician to carry four BBC engineers, a pilot, 1,000lbs of generator and batteries and the two new commentators: Nickalls and Sir John Squire.

Said Nickalls afterwards: "We stood on each other's foot when it was our turn to interrupt and simply poured excited words from start to finish, totally oblivious to being heard or not." They were - and the director-general, John Reith, wired his congratulations.[2]

Contents

[edit] Achievements

[edit] Olympic Games

  • 1920 - Silver, Eight
  • 1928 - Silver, Eight

[edit] Henley Wins

[edit] Published Works

  • Rowing, 1949 - G.O. Nickalls and Dr P.C. Mallam
  • Life's a pudding: an autobiography, 1939 - Guy Nickalls with additional chapter by G.O. Nickalls
  • With the Skin of their Teeth. Memories of great sporting finishes, 1951 - Edited by G.O. Nickalls
  • A Rainbow in the sky: Reminiscences, 1974 -G.O. Nickalls

[edit] External links

[edit] references

  1. ^  Hylton Cleaver, A History of Rowing, 1957
  2. ^  http://sport.guardian.co.uk/columnists/story/0,,2053233,00.html
  3. http://www.theboatrace.org/article/introduction/pastresults/1927racereport