Welcome home, Nicola!

MAKING THE NEWS... Nicola White with a giant front page of the Oldham Chronicle reporting her Olympic success.

FAMILY and friends flocked to a surprise party for Oldham’s homecoming Olympian Nicola White last night.

The 24-year-old former Hulme Grammar student, who used to play for Saddleworth, could not believe her eyes when she pulled into her mum’s street to be met by more than 60 flag-waving wellwishers.

Nicola donned the bronze medal she won with Team GB in hockey at London 2012 as, tears in her eyes, she embraced the familiar faces.

“My mum met me at the pub and I didn’t have the slightest clue what she had in store,” said Nicola.

“I thought it was going to be a quiet family meal. She insisted I should put on my Great Britain jacket but the penny didn’t drop!

“When I drove down the street and saw everybody waving the flags, I was totally overwhelmed.

The magnitude of Nicola’s achievement is beginning to sink in: “There were some unbelievable highlights — I scored my first ever Team GB goal with my family sitting behind the goal; and of course securing the medal.”

Not even a broken arm could keep her mum’s partner Steve away from the party. “They wanted to keep him in Oldham Royal Hospital on Saturday — he told them no chance,” said Gill.

Steve admitted it wasn’t a sporting injury: “I was hanging up the bunting and fell off a chair.”


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