He was a key part of the Somerset team that won the 'Second-class County Championship' in 1890 by winning twelve of their thirteen matches, tying the other with Middlesex.

Plans were immediately put into action to turn things around, with a nineteen-year lease taken on their ground, and a declaration from club-secretary Henry Murray-Anderdon: "There's only one way we'll do it, we must demonstrate that we are good enough.

The Middlesex side, which contained four players with Test caps, dismissed Somerset for 133 in their first-innings, Nichols one of James Phillips' seven victims.

Nichols' three wickets helped to limit the Londoners to 132, giving Somerset a first-innings lead, albeit by a single run.

Enforcing the follow-on, Somerset took eighty-three overs to bowl Leicestershire out for a second time, Nichols claiming a solitary wicket.

Nichols top-scored for Somerset in both innings; claiming two half-centuries,[9] and narrowly missed out on a third consecutive fifty when he was bowled on 49 against Glamorgan a few days later.

[11] In the return fixture against Staffordshire the visitors were two batsmen short which, in addition to a pair of run outs, left only fourteen wickets on offer.