His ability was soon noticed, and he secured the four seats in the Eton Eight, carrying off the Ladies' Challenge Plate at Henley Royal Regatta in 1885.

[citation needed] After Oxford, Nickalls joined Leander, of which he was Captain in 1892 and 1897 and took the main prizes at Henley Royal Regatta over the next seven years.

Vivian Nickalls became a member of London Rowing Club, and Guy joined them to win the Stewards in 1895, and the brothers also won Silver Goblets again that year.

In 1896, Nickalls had three wins – the Grand with Leander, Stewards with London Rowing Club, and Silver Goblets with his brother.

In 1908, he was a member of the Leander eight, which was assembled to challenge the Belgians rowing at the 1908 Summer Olympics and beat them to win the gold medal for Great Britain.

President, he nearly scotched the 1890 Boat Race by calling the Cambridge crew "probably a poorer lot than usual" in an official letter to his counterpart, S.D.

By late 1917, the army had a change of heart, sending him to France, then age fifty, as a Captain in the 23rd Lancashire Fusiliers in charge of physical and bayonet training.

[citation needed] When Zürich Rowing Club won the Stewards on 6 July 1935, Nickalls told Gully, "Thank God I have been spared to see what I believe to be the finest four of all time".

The next morning, he was in a car crash near Leeds en route to Scotland for a fishing holiday and died in hospital the following evening.