Henry Blofeld

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Autobiography published in 2000

Henry Calthorpe Blofeld (born at Hoveton Home Farm in Norfolk on 23 September 1939) (known as "Blowers", thanks to the late Brian Johnston) is a sports journalist. He is best known as a cricket commentator for Test Match Special on BBC Radio 4.

1 Early life and cricket career
2 Sports journalism
3 Outside sport
4 References

[edit] Early life and cricket career

Blofeld's family were landowners in Norfolk. He was the youngest of a family of three. His older brother, Sir John Blofeld, became a High Court judge. Henry Blofeld's father went to school with Ian Fleming, and his name was the inspiration for the name of James Bond supervillain Ernst Stavro Blofeld. Blofeld's uncle was the Honourable Freddie Calthorpe, (see Gough-Calthorpe family) who captained England on their first-ever tour of the West Indies in 1929/1930.

Henry was educated at Sunningdale School and Eton College, and played cricket at both. He was wicket-keeper for Eton from 1955-1957. In 1956, playing in against Harrow at Lord's, he was the third Eton batsman dismissed in as many balls by Harrow bowler Rex Neame. Later that year, Blofeld was one of only three batsmen for Public Schools to score a century against Combined Services, the others being Peter May and Colin Cowdrey, and he was selected as the Cricket Society's award for the most promising young player of the season.

Selected as Eton captain in his final year at school in 1957, Blofeld suffered a serious accident, being hit by a bus while riding a bicycle to the Eton cricket ground. His injuries curtailed his subsequent cricketing career; however, he still went on to play 16 first-class matches for Cambridge University in 1958 and 1959 (his team captain in 1958 was Ted Dexter), kept wicket for Free Forresters in their match against Cambridge in 1960, and played one Gillette Cup match for a minor county, Norfolk, against Hampshire in 1965. While playing for Cambridge, he scored a first-class century against MCC at Lord's in 1959. He attended King's College, Cambridge, but left after his first two years, and did not formally receive his degree.

[edit] Sports journalism

Blofeld took a job at a merchant bank, but it was not to his taste, and he drifted into sports journalism. He reported on the England tour to India in 1963/4, and was close to being picked as an emergency batsman to replace the ill Micky Stewart for the 2nd Test in Bombay. In the event, Stewart was picked despite his illness, but was unable to play any part in the match after fielding in the first two sessions.[1] He continued as a print journalist until 1972, when he joined the Test Match Special team. He has remained a regular commentator for Test Match Special, except for a period at BSkyB from 1991 to 1994. He also commentated for ITV in the 1960s.

Blofeld's cricket commentary is celebrated for his plummy voice and his idiosyncratic mention of superfluous details, including, in particular, pigeons, buses, aeroplanes and helicopters that happen to be passing by. He also uses the phrase "my dear old thing", or variants thereof.

He frequently makes errors (for example, failing to identify players correctly) and is quite often lost for words in the more exciting passages of play but this doesn't detract from the love that many loyal listeners to Test Match Special the world over have for him, demonstrated in the Test against Pakistan at Headingley in 1996, when a flat overlooking the ground was draped with a huge banner proclaiming "Henry Blofeld is God".

[edit] Outside sport

Blofeld was awarded an OBE for services to broadcasting in 2003, and the next year appeared alongside Fred Trueman in the "Tertiary Phase" of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio series.

Blofeld has written a book, partly autobiographical, entitled My Dear Old Thing: Talking Cricket. He undertook an "Evening With Blowers" tour in the spring/summer of 2006.