Former Royal skipper Pat McCarthy passes away in Australia

The Royal team to Australia in 1936

Standing L.E. de Zoysa, P.C.D. McCarthy, S.Pathmanathan,W.B.V. Thiedeman, D. Vollenhoven, E.F.E. de Kretser, J.W. Subasinghe, D.R.R. Porritt. Seated: F.H. de Saram, L.H.W. Sampson (Principal), G.R.J. de Soysa, L.V. Gooneratne (Master-in-charge), M. Sivanathan. On ground: A.I. Macan Markar, R.L. de Krestser

Pat McCarthy (89) who captained the Royal College cricket team in 1938, passed away in Australia recently.

Pat, a contempory of former Ceylon skipper C.I. Gunasekera, turned out for Royal from 1935 to 1938. In 1938 he led Royal to victory over S. Thomas in the annual big match. In 1935 Royal was skippered by A.N. Dharmaratne while S. Thomas’was skippered by Donald Fairweather who went on to play for All Ceylon.

S. Thomas’ won the game that year by 153. Pat’s contribution for Royal was 54 and 3. That year Royal had some distinguished cricketers such as Ryle de Silva, Lucien de Silva, A.H. F. Porritt and M.F. De Saram (F.C. De Saram’s brother).

Pat’s second year for Royal was in 1936 where the game ended in a high scoring draw. Batting first S. Thomas’ scored 286 and in reply Royal made 134 for no loss with Pat McCarthy making 98. In 1937 S. Thomas’ led by M. Sivanathan won the ‘Battle of the Blues’ by three wickets with Pat making insignificant scores of zero and nine for Royal.

In 1938 Pat, a left hander, captained Royal and he led the side to an innings and 87 runs win over S. Thomas. Batting first Royal made 351 for 7 and declared with Pat making a valuable 81. S. Thomas’ were skittled out for 112 and 152.

In later years Pat went on to represent All Ceylon as a schoolboy and NCC and toured Australia with the Royal team in 1936.

Migrating to Australia Pat turned out for Western Australia with distinction under the leadership of Ken Meulman (who played one Test for Australia). A significant feature was how he hit Ray Lindwall, the mighty Australian bowler, for a huge six in the game against New South Wales just when Queen Elizabeth the 2nd and Prince Phillip had just sat down to watch the game. The Royal couple was on a world tour and visited Australia in 1954.

Pat was also a scratch golfer and a fine pole vaulter and athlete. Whilst at Royal he was at Hartley House.

Pat represented All Ceylon in 1938 against the Australian team led by Don Bradman.