Ask any talented up and coming sportsman or woman if they’d like to go professional when they grow up and the answer is almost certain to be a resounding ‘yes’.

It’s the dream of many, of course, but the reality is that very, very few make it to the top of their chosen sport.

So imagine how good someone must be if they were able to play not one sport professionally, but two?

That’s something that Ron Nicholls, one of the greatest sportsmen ever produced by this wonderful county of ours, managed to do in the 50s and 60s when he was paid to play both cricket and football, and he continued to play top-level cricket until the mid-70s.

Nicholls was a seriously good cricketer and footballer in an age when the seasons weren’t blurred like they are today – football was played in the winter and cricket was played in the summer.

Not that too many were good enough to take advantage of that, of course. The likes of Denis Compton, Arthur Milton, Barrie Meyer, Phil Neale and Chris Balderstone spring immediately to mind along with Nicholls, who played cricket for Gloucestershire for close on 25 years, scoring more than 23,000 first class runs, and kept goal in more than 180 Football League games for Bristol Rovers, Cardiff City and Bristol City before ending his career with Cheltenham Town.

Born on 4th December 1933 in Sharpness, some 18 miles west of Stroud, Nicholls moved to Cheltenham with his family when he was five or six – the second youngest of seven children.

He attended St John’s Primary School before going on to Whaddon Secondary School in Clyde Crescent and his son Laurie, himself a decent sportsman, said: “He was bright, sharp, but all he wanted to do was play football and cricket.”

And it was soon apparent that he was very good at both. These days any youngster good enough to play both sports to a decent standard has to eventually choose between the two and the chances are that the glitz and the glamour – not to mention the money! – that is associated with football will push them towards the winter game.

But back in those post-war years there wasn’t the disparity between the sports that there is today and for Nicholls it was always cricket that was number one.

“He played his first game of cricket for Cheltenham in 1948 when he was aged 14,” said Laurie. “It was against Met Police and he opened the batting with Don Perry.”

Don Perry was a major sporting figure in Cheltenham in those days but his young opening partner was soon making a name for himself too because Nicholls immediately became a regular in the 1st XI and his run-scoring exploits quickly got noticed by Gloucestershire for whom he made his first class debut in 1951.

“Eric Baker used to take Dad down to Bristol for pre-season trials because he was too young to drive himself,” recalled Laurie.

Baker was a local businessman and cricket enthusiast, who could obviously spot a player with exceptional talent, and in years to come Nicholls never forgot the kindness and support that he showed him in those early days.

“Eric used to run a side called CE Baker’s XI and whenever Dad didn’t have a county match he would guest for him,” said Laurie. “He never scored more than 110! He’d always get his ton and then give his wicket away to one of the opposition’s younger bowlers.”

But even in those early days when his cricket and football careers were starting to take off the young Nicholls couldn’t just focus on sport because it was also a time when National Service called.

“Dad was based at Aldershot,” said Laurie, who recalls an interesting tale from those days. “He used to play cricket for the Army but in those days the batting order was done on rank.

“You’d get the majors, the captains and the lieutenants batting at the top of the order and Dad was batting lower down.

“He got a hundred batting at seven and one of the officers said to him, ‘I think you’ll go up the order in the next innings!’”

It wasn’t only cricket in which Nicholls was making a name for himself down south because his football was going pretty well too.

“He was a non-contracted player with Fulham while he was at Aldershot,” explained Laurie.

In fact, it should be said that although Ron Nicholls is probably best known around these parts as a very good opening batsman, he was also a mighty fine goalkeeper too.

“He played nearly 200 Football League and cup games,” added Laurie. “He left Bristol City at the end of the 1966 season and then had a season and a half in non-league with Cheltenham.

“He was a very good goalkeeper; very, very agile. He won promotion with Cardiff to the old Division One in 1960 and played against all the top players – Nat Lofthouse, Jimmy Hill, Johnny Haynes, Danny Blanchflower and Tom Finney.

“He also played in an FA Cup game for Bristol Rovers against Manchester United at the old Eastville ground.

“United had all their Busby Babes but Rovers won 4-0, it was one of the greatest games in their history.”

It was a third round tie on 7th January 1956 and it was played in front of nearly 36,000 fans – legend has it that there were some 42,000 crammed into the ground! – and among Bristol Rovers’ goalscorers that day was one Barrie Meyer, another fine cricketer for Gloucestershire who later went on to become a top international umpire.

“Barrie was Dad’s big mate,” said Laurie, “he scored a lot of goals for Bristol Rovers. In fact, in those days Gloucestershire could probably outplay any other cricketing county at football, such was the depth of footballing talent.

“We had David Smith, who played football for Bristol City and Millwall; Arthur Milton was at Arsenal and was a double international; Harold Jarman, who was a legend at Bristol Rovers; and Bob Etheridge, who played more than 250 games for Bristol City, as well as Dad and Barrie.

But when push came to shove, it was always cricket that took preference over football for Nicholls. He’d often return late for pre-season football training because of his cricket commitments and it’s fair to say that had he concentrated purely on football he would surely have played many more games than he did.

But that’s not to say he was wrong to focus on his cricket, far from it, because he enjoyed a stellar cricketing career, scoring 23,607 runs in first class cricket and another 1,740 in List A matches.

“I have been told that in the history of first class cricket worldwide, no one who has only played for one first class team has ever scored more runs ,” said Laurie with understandable pride, “it’s an incredible statistic..”

So what sort of batsman was Ron Nicholls?

“He was ultra-stylish,” said Laurie. “He batted at three and four for a couple of seasons but he was an opening batsman.

“He had a very strong cover drive and off drive, but although he was stylish he was very brave too.”

And he was also very effective because along with Martin Young he shares the Gloucestershire record for an opening partnership – 395 against Oxford University in The Parks in 1962 in a match in which Nicholls made a career-best unbeaten 217.

That was a vintage year for Nicholls during which he made 2,059 runs and there was talk that he may be selected for Ted Dexter’s Ashes tour Down Under that winter.

Unfortunately he missed the cut but his is an impressive record with Laurie adding: “He scored 1,000 runs in a season in 17 or 18 consecutive years.”

That shows great consistency and he also had a very strong sense of duty. When Gloucestershire’s batting was decimated by injury in 1973/74 he didn’t think twice before answering their call to come out of retirement.

“He played against Worcestershire at New Road when Vanburn Holder was bowling,” said Laurie. “He broke his right thumb – it was a bad break – but he still saved the game.”

The next day he was in Portsmouth, which was one of the bounciest wickets on the county circuit, for a three-day game against Hampshire who just happened to have West Indies fast bowling great Andy Roberts in their ranks.

“Dad had a plaster round his thumb and Roberts absolutely peppered him,” said Laurie. “He was hit on the temple – there were no helmets in those days - and had bruises from the top of his head to his hip.

“But he was so brave, he batted all day for 60 not out. Tony Brown, the former Gloucestershire captain, said he thought Dad was the bravest sportsman he had ever known.”

For much of Nicholls’ career, cricket was played on uncovered wickets and when you throw in the plethora of fast bowlers that were around at the time – pretty much all the best players in the world were playing county cricket – it’s clear it wasn’t an easy time to be a batsman, especially an opening batsman.

Nicholls played against many of the true greats of the game – Gary Sobers, John Snow, Fred Trueman, Brian Statham, Colin Cowdrey, Ted Dexter, Brian Close, Richie Benaud, John Price, Ray Illingworth and Derek Underwood – while he also played alongside the likes of Tom Graveney, Mike Procter, Zaheer Abbas and George Emmett.

Although he was only a very occasional off-spin bowler, his modest tally of 11 first class wickets included Test players Sir Geoff Boycott, Mike Brearley and the West Indian Roy Marshall.

He enjoyed every minute of it, of course he did, and although he made a decent living out of playing sport, he certainly wasn’t in it for the money.

Laurie reckons that in the early 1960s he was earning £22 a week as a footballer (with a retainer of £17 a week in the summer) and £25 a week as a cricketer. This, together with win bonuses and incentives, was a decent income for the time, but clearly bears no relation to the earnings made by modern day professional sportsmen.

But although money was never Nicholls’ driving force he did have an eye for business.

“His benefit year was in 1966, the year the West Indies were touring,” said Laurie. “They had so many greats in that team – Nurse, Hunte, Hall, Griffith, Gibbs, Sobers – and Dad chose Gloucestershire’s tour match against them as his benefit game.

“But he wouldn’t let anyone take around a blanket to collect money until he’d batted. By tea-time he’d made 108 after which he said, ‘Now take a blanket round!’”

That benefit season was richly deserved, of course, as was a further joint testimonial in 1971.

“When he retired from playing sport he said, ‘I’ve had a good run, not many people get to 43 before they have to get a real job!’” said Laurie.

In his later years Nicholls became a sales director for a sports equipment business but he never, ever lost his love of playing sport.

“He was a keen and capable golfer and was a member at Cotswold Hills Golf Club,” said Laurie, but as in those early days it was always cricket that came first.

“He was passionate about the game,” said Laurie. “He was captain of Cheltenham in his 40s and in his first three years we won the Western League in 1976, the County Cup in 1977 and National Club Knockout at Lord’s in 1978.”

That day at the home of cricket was one of the great days in Cheltenham’s proud history, of course, and it was a particularly memorable day for the Nicholls family because Laurie, now 60, also played in that game.

“It was great to play with Dad at Lord’s,” said Laurie. “I bowled eight overs and took two for 32 . I also got a bat as well – two not out.

“When Dad retired from first class cricket in 1975, he continued his association with Gloucestershire as captain of the county 2nd XI for a couple of years.

“He was also closely involved in working with young cricketers of the time, including Mark Alleyne and Tony Wright.

“He was heavily involved in coaching, especially young cricketers. He and Tom Graveney worked together, heading up coaching programmes throughout the year.

“Dad continued to play cricket all his life, he was such a humble guy and the perfect gentleman on the field. His last game was as captain of the President’s XI during Cheltenham Cricket Club’s cricket week just three weeks before he died on 22nd July 1994 – not 21st July as is widely reported.”

Laurie, meanwhile, had gone on to captain Cheltenham in the mid to late 80s and is one of only a handful of life members at the club.

He was also a decent goalkeeper himself and signed a schoolboy pro contract with Cardiff City when he was a teenager – a deal that was negotiated by his dad - and went on to play 20 odd league and cup games for Cheltenham Town. He also had a spell at Ledbury Town, before playing 13 games for Gloucester City during 1979 in the old Southern League.

Laurie’s uncle and his dad’s brother, Harry, also played in goal for Cheltenham while Laurie’s younger brother Paul was a cricketer at Cheltenham.

Laurie, Paul and sister Denise – just like their dad – have been supported all the way in their sporting and career pursuits by their mum Pat, who lives in Benhall.

“She and dad were childhood sweethearts,” said Laurie. “They married on 4th February 1957 and Mum was totally committed to Dad’s career.

“She watched him playing football and cricket whenever and wherever she could. She took me to my first football match to watch Dad playing for Cardiff City at Ninian Park when I was just six weeks old!”

Laurie obviously doesn’t remember that game but he saw enough of his father playing sport over the years to say: “He was a sporting genius, I can’t overstate how talented he was.”

Some of Ron Nicholls’ key cricket statistics

First class debut: 1951
First class career span: 1951-1975
First class runs: 23,607
First class highest score: 217 not out
First class hundreds: 18
First class fifties: 124
First class wickets: 11
First class catches: 283
First class stumpings: 1
List A career runs: 1,740
List A highest score: 127
List A hundreds: 1
List A fifties: 10
List A wickets: 1
List A catches: 12