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Always Polished, No Silver
We’ve always contended that championship honours were not always bestowed upon the best of wrestlers. They indicated a wrestler’s position in the pecking order and were used as a reward for reliable and favoured workers. It did seem to be a case of the face fitting. But in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s the sheer depth of talent to be found beggared belief. There were so many wrestlers filling the bills that it would be impossible for everyone who was worthy to have championship success bestowed upon them. Al Nicol fell into that category – a polished performer who fulfilled a successful career without any title honours, other than a pretty meaningless Midlands welterweight champion occasionally added to his name.
Life is full of such injustices. A good amateur background and a splattering of judo knowledge, led to a professional debut. The Wrestler magazine repeatedly listed a 1958 debut against Eric Sands, which we can certainly disprove. We have documented evidence of Al wrestling Jack Taylor at the Free Trades Hall in Manchester on 27th November, 1954. Two months later, 14th January 1955 and we have evidence of him working for Norman Morrell and wrestling Bert Walsh in Leicester. These were no one-offs, we have found Al working regularly in the three years up to that supposed 1958 debut. In a newspaper report of 17th June, 1957, Accrington’s Jack Taylor names Al Nicol as one of his two hardest opponents, the other being Londoner Tiger Woods.
Another early Al Nicol achievement was alluded to by Charles Mascall in The Wrestler magazine, but we adopted our usual Doubting Thomas stance until Ron Historyo came up with the evidence, and so now we believe. Believe what? Mascall claimed that Al Nicol had wrestled in a mask after just two professional contests. The two contests schould be disregarded, but we can confirm that Al Nicol did have a short run as a masked wrestler, The Flash, unsurprisingly noted for his speed. Opponents included Ted Hannon, Jim Lewis, Red Callaghan and Stefan Milla before the run came to an end with an unmasking by Bernard Murray on 1st December, 1956.
We think we have established that Al Nicol was an accomplished performer quite a good few years before we enjoyed watching him on our television screens.
We mentioned at the outset that our polished performer had not “owned” a belt. That’s not strictly true, and it was a prestigious one at that. Not a British title, but a historically significant Lord Lonsdale belt, presented to Al Nicol, for one night only. Wrestling’s Lord Lonsdale belts (not to be confused with the more famous boxing belts) had been presented to winners of the National Sporting Club’s annual tournaments in 1909 and 1910. The belt won by Peter Gotz in 1910, now likely owned by promoter Norman Morrell, was used in a tournament at Grantham in 1959. In the final on November 7th Al faced the experienced Tommy Mann. We have no doubt that fans expected Mann to emerge as victor but were overjoyed when Al Nicol came out on top and had the belt strapped around his waist. A few weeks later Al again defeated Mann in a return contest, but then lost in a third contest when Tommy Mann was defending his British middleweight title.
A television debut came in February, 1959, against Alan Colbeck. This was the first of well over fifty televised contests, three against Mick McManus and other opponents that included Adrian Street, Jim Breaks, George Kidd, and ended with Julien Morice in December, 1973. His most memorable televised contest was probably the one in May, 1964 when he wrestled Joe Murphy on the Cup Final Spectacular, a supporting match to the McManus and Logan against the Royal brothers tag match.
Always good performances, welcomed by the fans, but the harsh reality was that Al Nicol was more often the bridesmaid with occasional moments of glory.
In July 1971 Al lost out to eventual champion Vic Faulkner in the semi final of a tournament to decide a new British welterweight champion.
Our last recorded appearance for Al nicol was in 1974, having given twenty years of outstanding service. What became of him we don’t know; but we’d love to if anyone could help.
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Page added 11/05/2025
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