Nicholls has been part of the NSW team to claim the Eire Cup before but this year had the honour of being team captain.

Nicholls rates it as the biggest achievement of his croquet career.

"That would have to be at the top," NIcholls said.

"It was an honour to take on that role and then to actually go on and win it, it was fantastic.

"Just to be able to share it with a group of people was great."

Nicholls said team success in what usually is an individual sport made the win more enjoyable.

"Generally it's an individual sport, a bit like tennis, and you don't get to do the team stuff very often," he said.

"To go along and get the team dynamics happening, we enjoyed ourselves both on and off the greens."

Nicholls' NSW team defeated Victoria 11-9 in a tight final that came down to the last few games.

“It was close and a full on afternooon,” he said.

The Eire Cup sees the six states compete with eight in a team, four men and four women.

The competition sees a test match each day with mixed doubles, singles and reverse singles.

It was played as part of the Australian Croquet Championships in Sydney.

Nicholls also competed in the Australian Gold Medal competition where he finished a credible fourth.

He recovered from a tough opening day where he lost all four matches, to a point where a win in his last game would have resulted in a play-off for second place.

The fourth place finish was still a top result, especially to finish behind three players ranked one, eight and nine in the world.

“There was six of us and we play each other twice,” Nicholls explained.

“The winner romped it in but it was even after that.

“I lost four from four on the first day but recovered after that.”

Nicholls also finished fourth in the Australian’s mens.

The result will see Nicholls off to the world championships in Florida in April 2016, in what will be his third time at the world titles.

It has been a busy couple of months for Nicholls, who also recently returned from the New Zealand Open in Christchurch.

Nicholls finished third in the doubles and fifth in the singles.

“I’ve had a good couple of months,” Nicholls said.

“In the singles I managed to take a game off the world number four at the time.

“I’ve played (the NZ Open) three times in the last four years but this has certainly been my best result.”