With thanks to Andy Turner
Former ACT player, captain, board member, selector umpire and scorer passed away on the 18th June aged 83.
Kevin made his grade debut for Ainslie in 1947/48 as a 14 year old. In late November 1947, he made 117 not out for the Ainslie Sub District side. He made his ACT debut aged 17 in 1950/51, becoming ACT Player Number 233 when selected for the ACT side which played the New Zealand minor association Upper Hutt on New Years Day 1951. In this match he made an unbeaten 32 and taking 2 for 12. He was not to play for the ACT again until 1959/60 but was a regular fixture of the ACT side during the 1960s. He captained the ACT on five occasions in 1967/68 and 1968/69. Overall in ACT representative cricket, he played 20 matches, scoring 240 runs at an average of 13.33 with a highest score of 56 which was against Newcastle in 1966/67. As a bowler he took 39 wickets at an average of 23.85 with the best bowling of 6-74 against Illawarra in 1964/65. He took one further 5 wicket haul for the ACT in taking 6-85 against Newcastle in 1965/66. He was also selected to play for the Southern New South Wales side which played the touring Indians in 1967/68.
In ACT 1st Grade cricket, he played for Ainslie, Northbourne, Turner and City in a career which lasted from 1950/51 until 1975/76. He played for Ainslie in 1950/51, 1956/57 and from 1958/59 until 1968/69, playing 137 matches for the club, scoring 2684 runs at an average of 19.31 and taking 414 wickets at an average of 15.70. His best with the bat was 111 against Northbourne in 1960/61 while his best with the ball was 8-49 against Northbourne in 1960/61. He played for Northbourne in 1951/52 and 1952/53, playing 14 matches, scoring 242 runs and taking 45 wickets. His best bowling for the club was 6-60 against Turner at Reid Oval.
He played for Turner in 1957/58, playing just four matches, scoring 19 runs and taking 6 wickets. Overall, he played 222 1st Grade matches which is still 10th on the all time list of players. He appeared in Grand Finals on 7 occasions, being on the winning side on 3 occasions. He scored 4114 runs at an average of 18.04, with one century and 17 half centuries. His tally of 566 1st Grade wickets is the fourth highest in ACT 1st Grade history. He had a best bowling of 8-49 and took 5 wickets in an innings on 28 occasions and on a single occasion took ten wickets in a match. He is one of only two players (the other being Lorne Lees) to do the double of scoring more than 4000 runs and taking 400 wickets in ACT 1st Grade cricket history. As well as a long playing career, he also served as President of the Ainslie club from 1963 to 1969 as well as the City District Cricket Club.
Kevin first qualified as an umpire in 1973 and stood as a 1st Grade and Representative umpire from 1978/79 until 1996/97. He umpired 186 matches in 1st Grade which is currently the 5th highest overall and made appearances 27 times in Semi Final and Finals matches. As a representative umpire, he stood in 40 matches. Some of the highlights of his umpiring career include:
- First ACT umpire to stand in the modern era of the Prime Minister’s XI series of matches, when he stood with Tony Crafter in 1986/87 against England.
- Selected as an Umpire for the washed out Prime Minister’s XI in 1988/89 against the West Indies.
- Youth One Day International between Australia and Sri Lanka in 1983/84.
- Two Youth Test Matches in 1985/86 and 1986/87 between Australia and New Zealand and India respectively.
- The Australian Women’s Cricket Council XI match against England in 1984/85.
- The first Women’s ODI in Canberra between Australia and New Zealand in 1988/89 as part of the Women’s World Cup.
He was President of the ACT Umpires Association from 1982 until 1989, at the end of which Life Membership of this Association was added to his trophy cabinet. His memory is revived on an annual basis: the ACT Umpires & Scorers Council’s ‘umpire of the year’ award has been known as the McCarty Medal for 20 years or more.
After his umpiring career was over, Kevin also acted as a representative scorer, mainly between 1999/00 and 2004/05, in an era when scorers were hard to come by in the ACT.
Long before he retired from playing he devoted a great deal of his life to the administration of cricket in the ACT. He was a member of the Grade Cricket Committee during 1968 to 1970 and again in 1978-79; he served intermittently on the ACT Selection Committee between 1966 and 1984; he was ACTCA Treasurer from 1967 until 1970, and served on the Executive Committee from 1967 until 1975. If that wasn’t sufficient service, he topped it up with being ACTCA President for 5 years after his initial election in August 1970. He was made a Life Member of the ACTCA in 1976, and the ‘Manuka Cottage’ included a ‘Kev McCarty Room’ when it became the ACTCA’s administrative HQ in 1992.
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