KeithQuinnRugby
Thinking and talking about rugby every day for 50+ years
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10 August 2014
Sunday night on the couch at around half past eight at my place has always been a bit of a ritual. Its always been the time to settle back and enjoy 'quality theatre' on New Zealand's TV1. This last weekend having a film about a familiar and warm rugby memory for New Zealanders in that timeslot might have been a risk. But 'The Kick' was a delight. I never moved for its near two-hour duration. Read more »
I always travel with a notebook to jot down the hard case or significant sporting stories I hear. My thinking is - 'these are too good to lose.' This website is a perfect place for me to publish them. Read more »
*Your website editor has been chosen to commentate on rugby's return to the SummerB Olympic Programme, in Rio de Janeiro in August 2016. His commentaries on the sevens will be part of the host broadcaster coverage for OBS (Olympic Broadcasting Service) the official broadcast TV outlet of the IOC. This will be my tenth Summer Olympic Games. I am publishing here my personal stories and memories of the previous nine Games I have been to. Read here...* Read more »
1 May 2014
This Just in: May 2014; Sad news that one of the veterans of the 1955 and 1959 British Lions Rugby teams, the tough and rugged prop forward Hughie McLeod, had passed away. McLeod a great job in the scrums on two long tours of South Africa then New Zealand and Australia over 55 years ago. Read more »
2 May 2014
This Just In; May 2014; Of course you could say it was 'logical' that Adam Whitelock would go on to become an All Black. Yes he has great form and talent in the 15 aside game. He has shown that for years. But those same skills meant it was only right and rational that Sir Gordon Tietjens would eventually use them and put Adam into his 'Sevens All Blacks' for the last two tournaments of the 2014 IRB World Sevens Series. Read more »
Your comments to me at kqrugby@hotmail.co.nz[mailto:kqrugby@hotmail.co.nz] Read more »
*This Ten Questions idea is to ask a leading rugby personality; either a player, from the the media or an administrator some questions which may prompt a response from them which we have not heard of before;* Read more »
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The ABs win in the Wellington wind v France!
Ships couldn't berth on this fierce stormy day but the test went ahead anyway. NZ won 5-3 and hundreds of hats and scarves disappeared forever!
McCARTHY, WINSTON
The famous New Zealand radio commentator who revolutionised the way rugby commentary was done all over the world.
The Wellington born McCarthy had essentially an outward personality; he loved talking, and he had had time on stage as a lad in the early 1930s in New Zealand. It followed then that he was not phased by nerves when he became a rugby commentator. He broadcast his games with a style so different from the conservative way callers had been first commentated the game in Britain. McCarthy was loud and brazen not afraid to raise his voice and ‘let go’ on the air.
When he was sent by the New Zealand Government to broadcast the 1945-46 Kiwi Army rugby of Britain back to New Zealand his style fascinated the conformist BBC. They took his broadcasts and put them on their stations. They were amazed that he could engender so much excitement. The BBC wanted him to stay on. Instead McCarthy came back to New Zealand, but his style lingered in Britain. Gone were the stuffy, some might say plum-in-the-mouth callers and encouraged was the McCarthy style. The great Scottish TV commentator, Bill McLaren, recalls how, as a young fledgling radio man, he was sent by the BBC to Cardiff in 1954 to stand behind McCarthy and watch ‘how’ he broadcast a game.
Because of the high peaks of emotion surrounding the 1956 Springbok tour of New Zealand Winston’s words of description and catchphrases became the catchphrases of the New Zealand nation. His most famous call was ‘listen….it’s a goal!’ when a shot at goal was taken. He would allow the cheering of the crowd to tell the radio audience first whether a kick was on target or not.
In his time, in the 1940s and ‘50s Winston McCarthy became one of the best-known New Zealanders. He became the eyes and ears of New Zealand’s voracious appetite for listening to their All Black team on tour. It was commonly said around the country that if the All Black selectors of the time could not see every game being played each week they were influenced in their selection of test teams by what McCarthy had said on the air. His words weighed that heavily.
Who captained the All Blacks at the 1991 Rugby World Cup?
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