I can't think of many things in life that give me more pleasure than listening to Test Match Special on BBC radio. I happily while away many an hour with it filling the air indoors. I often plan my long runs for when it starts on the radio, so that it can entertain me when I'm plodding the streets. It makes report writing at work slightly more bearable (slightly..). I have even been known to stay on the train for a stop or two longer than necessary to listen to a few more overs.
It's not just the cricket that provides the pleasure for me. It's charm is almost entirely down to the personalities that provide the commentary. The general rambling, tangents and off-topic comments never fail to make me smile, even when the passage of play is slow. It has such a rich history in the UK and for so many fans, cricket and TMS are as intrinsically linked as Wimbledon is with strawberries and cream. I do have access to Sky Sports to be able to watch the action unfold, but I rarely switch it on. Not least because I only subscribe to the mobile version (staring at an ipad all day is not the best viewing experience) but also because I find the coverage dull. It's almost too easy for Sky Sports. Their commentary team is made up almost completely of ex-players, and believe me I'm not against that. Some of them speak very well about the game, but the viewer can see quite clearly what's happening and when it comes to describing the game, less is most definitely more. The nature of radio means the commentators naturally have to work harder to describe what's unfolding on the pitch for the listener. They have to paint pictures with their words, making commentary much more of an art form. TMS is the classical concerto to the Sky Sports pop concert. Each of the TMS commentators and expert summarisers bring their own qualities and unique personalities to the role, but none encapsulate the history, eccentricity and uniqueness of the game quite like Henry "Blowers" Blofeld.
His rich descriptions of passing buses, pigeons and random people in the crowd make the game come to life just as much as HD TV. Coupled with his gloriously plummy voice this provides a very tangible link to an era of cricket that is perhaps long gone.
He was born in Norfolk to landowner parents Tom and Grizel Blofeld. He had a private school education, firstly at Sunningdale, then at Eton. Cricket was part of his life from a young age and it seems it provided solace from his faltering academic career. By his own admission his primary aim in academia was merely to "get by". When at the Lower Sixpenny House his wicket keeping and batting skills soon caught the eye of former Oxford Blue and First Class cricketer Claude Taylor, who was the cricket coach and Latin teacher at the time. He fought off stiff competition at Eton for the wicketkeeper role, and built up a formidable partnership with Edward Lane-Fox, a slow left spinner. The line bowled Lane-Fox, stumped Blofeld appeared regularly in the Eton scorebooks. He made regular appearances for the Eton team, as well as being chosen for the Southern Schools XI. It was for the Southern Schools that he scored his first hundred at Lord's against a Combined Services XI in 1956, a performance that provided one of his proudest moments. It is said that Donald Bradman was in the Committee Room that day and sent up personal congratulations to Henry following his achievement. He made his first appearance for Norfolk not long after this and made an impressive 79 in a match against the Nottinghamshire 2nd XI, another performance suggesting that Henry was perhaps destined for greater things.
On the 7th June 1957 however, Henry's love affair with passing buses got off to a rather inauspicious start. Whilst travelling to an Eton net session at Agar's Plough he cycled into the side of one with considerable force. This lead to a serious skull fracture and facial fractures, the effects of which he still feels today as he reportedly has very little feeling on the left side of his face.
Following his long recovery from the accident he continued to play for Norfolk and after entering Cambridge University the following year, made his First Class debut in 1958 for Cambridge University against Kent. Henry was mostly kept out of the team however by regular first choice Keeper Chris Howland. He has been quoted as saying that his reactions were never quite as sharp following his accident, which he felt affected his keeping more than his batting. He played on for 2 seasons as Cambridge's opening batsman, describing himself as the worst opening batsman to play for either Cambridge or Oxford since the Boer War. After faltering in his third year exams he made the decision to leave Cambridge and pursue the next stage of his life.
The next stage of his life, initially at least was in the City, a career that never brought him joy. His way into to journalism came via the cricket correspondent for The Times Johnny Woodcock who Henry met at a cocktail party for the cricket club he played for casually called The Arabs. Johnny Woodcock managed to pull some strings and found Henry a match to report on for The Times. He gradually left his City job behind as he continued to pick up freelance journalism jobs for various papers reporting on various sports.
In June 1968, Henry wrote to the BBC Head of Outside Broadcasting on the advice of a John Thicknesse, a colleague at the Evening Standard. He had a positive response and was given an opportunity to commentate on a 10 minute section of a county match for old Home Service. The BBC were impressed and Henry was retained on a list of cricket commentators for the next few years. Bizarrely though the first Test match he commentated on wasn't for TMS and wasn't on an England Test series. Whilst writing about the 1971 Test series between West Indies and New Zealand, an opportunity arose for him to commentate on the series for RJR, Radio Jamaica. He called all three tests and served as his introduction to international cricket commentary.
On his return to the UK, he was introduced to legendary TMS scorer Bill Frindall in the commentary box at Chelmsford whilst covering a game between Essex and Warwickshire for BBC Radio 2, which lead to him being asked to cover the second and third ODI's between England and Australia for TMS at Lord's and Edgbaston. From here he remained a regular and unmistakable fixture in the Test Match Special commentary team to the present day, despite a short lived foray into television commentary in Sky's early days in the early 1990's.
Despite ill health doing it's best to slow Henry down in recent years (multiple hip dislocations and surgeries, as well as a second near death experience following difficult heart bypass surgery in 2001) he continues to fulfil a full commentary schedule, most recently travelling to the UAE to cover England's tour against Pakistan. As well as this, in recent years he has seen his commitments to the stage grow, completing multiple tours of his one-man show, including tours at the Edinburgh Festival. He received an MBE for services to broadcasting in 2008.
Henry has been a collector of PG Wodehouse First Editions, as well as vintage cartoons by former Australia cricketer Arthur Mailey. In 1977 he travelled from London to Bombay in a maroon-coloured 1921 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost with former mentor Johnny Woodcock, and friends Judy Casey and Michael Bennett in time for England's tour to India to start. Considering the trip took in the sights of, among other places, Tehran, Kabul and most of Pakistan, it is doubtful a similar journey could be achieved nowadays.
Perhaps one of the most intriguing stories about Henry is his link to Ian Fleming and the imfamous Bond villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld. I have vaguely heard over the years of possible links but it was not until I read Henry's autobiography when I finally found the truth. The creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming was friends with Henry Father Tom, having gone to school together and both being members of the Boodle's club in London. Whilst writing Thunderball Fleming wanted an evil sounding name. Having struggled over a suitably sinister name for his villain for a few days, he took a cab to Boodles and presided over the members list in search for a winner. Having reached the both Tom and Henry Blofeld, it is written that he said: "I slammed the book shut, gave a yelp of delight, ordered a pint of champagne and never looked back". So there you have it!
Blowers is as big a part of TMS as anyone else in it's history, and I can't think of many who bring a game of cricket to life quite as well as him. We'll never know where his playing career would've led him had it not been for that unfortunate encounter with the bus in 1957, but I think it can be argued that his broadcasting career will bring him a far greater legacy in the game even if he had captained England. He's 77 years old now and despite the fact he's still very much going strong in the TMS commentary box at the moment, I know he won't go on for ever. But I'm just going to enjoy that voice and the visions of the pigeons and the buses for as long as possible.
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