Winston John McCarthy (10 March 1908 – 2 January 1984) was a

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the Comparison of rugby league and rugby union, two codes of ru ...

radio commentator during the 1940s through to the 1960s who became known as the "Voice of New Zealand Rugby". He is particular remembered for his broadcasts of the

New Zealand Expeditionary Force The New Zealand Expeditionary Force (NZEF) was the title of the military forces sent from New Zealand to fight alongside other British Empire and Dominion troops during World War I (1914–1918) and World War II (1939–1945). Ultimately, the NZE ...

"Kiwis" during the Second World War and later for

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matches. Born in

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by m ...

he was educated at St Patrick's College. As a schoolboy, McCarthy recalled meeting VC winner Billy Hardham in 1922; "a very silent, simple man" living in a flat in Kelburn who had played rugby for Wellington 51 times, and who gave him a historic book on rugby. A promising rugby union half-back, he played for the Manawatu B and Bush (Now part of Wairarapa-Bush) teams in the 1930s. In 1936 he moved to the South Island's West Coast and played

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 112 ...

for the Waiuta club before a shoulder injury ended his playing career. He began a career in radio in 1937 when he began work as programme organiser for the National Broadcasting Service at station 2YD in Wellington. During the Second World War he worked with well-known sports broadcaster Wallie Ingram as a result of a posting to the Army Education and Welfare service. In 1945–46 he was chosen to broadcast commentaries of the games played in Europe by the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force rugby team, nicknamed the ''Kiwis''. These were the first live rugby broadcasts from the United Kingdom to New Zealand. It was during one of these matches that he coined his catch-phrase "Listen... Listen... It's a goal!". His last commentary of a rugby test match was the final

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of the 1959 British Lions tour. Before the era of television, when radio and rugby were New Zealand passions, he had broadcast 38 tests, creating vivid, unforgettable word pictures. He had also commentated other sports, such as cricket and boxing, and commentated at the 1950 and 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth and 1956 Olympic games. He was buried at Purewa Cemetery in the Auckland suburb of Meadowbank.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCarthy, Winston 1908 births 1984 deaths New Zealand rugby union commentators People educated at St. Patrick's College, Wellington Burials at Purewa Cemetery