RUGBY COMMENTATOR TO RETIRE

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28251, 12 April 1957, Page 5

RUGBY COMMENTATOR TO RETIRE

Last Broadcast By Mr W. McCarthy

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON. April 11. Mr Winston McCarthy will make his final Rugby broadcast from Athletic Park on April 27. After that he will sever his connexion with the National Broadcasting Service and leave Wellington. Beyond saying he was not leaving New Zealand Mr McCarthy did not disclose his plans. In announcing today his decision to end his career as a sports broadcaster, Mr McCarthy said he was doing so reluctantly and purely for economic reasons. “I appreciate what broadcasting has done for me by providing two world tours as well a? trips to Australia and South Africa.” he said, “but the plain fact of the mfttter is that it was costing me money which I could not afford. “Every time I went on a trip I was out of pocket and, since I have a wife and family to provide for, I had no alternative but to find some other way of making a living. “I shall do the match at Athletic Park on April 27, but that will be my swan song,” he said. Mr McCarthy was broadcaster with the 2nd N.Z.E.F. (Kiwi) Rugby team on its British tour in 1945. He travelled to Australia in 1947, to South Africa in 1949. to Australia again in 1951, and to the British Isles, France, and North America in 1953-54. He attended the Lions’ games in 1950 (shortly after covering Auckland’s Empire Games) and the Springboks’ games (followed by the Melbourne Olympics) last year. He also covered the Empire Games in Vancouver in 1954. He has given regular radio talks on sporting subjects and has prepared special items such as visualisations of the football match in “Tom Brown’s Schooldays” and the clash between the All Blacks and Scotland at Murrayfield in 1905.

Regret at Decision People in the Broadcasting Service had the greatest feelings of goodwill toward Mr McCarthy, and regretted exceedingly his decision to break his connexion with sports broadcasting, said the Director of Broadcasting (Mr W. Yates). Whenever Mr McCarthy had travelled overseas with touring teams he had been included as a member of the official team and received allowances payable to Government servants travelling abroad. No decision had been made on a replacement for Mr McCarthy in Rugby broadcasts, and a successor would not be engaged till the position had been carefully reviewed. Mr McCarthy had agreed that before he left broadcasting he would take part in two special broadcasts on a link of the main national stations on May 1 and May 8. In these he would review the highlights of his long career as a sports commentator. After his final broadcast an opportunity would be taken to say farewell suitably to a man “who has done so much for sports broadcasting,” said Mr Yates.