Henry Calthorpe Blofeld, OBE (born 23 September 1939) nicknamed Blowers by Brian Johnston, is an English retired sports journalist, broadcaster and amateur ornithologist best known as a cricket commentator for Test Match Special on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra. He has established a reputation as a commentator with an accent, vocabulary and syntax that is quintessentially Old Etonian both in style and substance. He also writes on cricket and has authored eight books to date.
Early life
Blofeld's family were landowners at Hoveton in Norfolk and he was the youngest of three siblings. His elder brother, Sir John Blofeld, became a High Court judge. Henry's father (Thomas Robert Calthorpe Blofeld, 1903–1986) was at Eton with Ian Fleming and his name is believed to have been the inspiration for the name of James Bond supervillain, Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
Blofeld is a distant relative of the Honourable Freddie Calthorpe, a former England Test captain, but, contrary to common belief, he is not Calthorpe's nephew.
Education
Blofeld was educated at Sunningdale School and at Eton College, followed by King's College, Cambridge, but failed both his final exams "by an innings".
School cricket
Blofeld played cricket at both Sunningdale and Eton. He was wicket-keeper for the Eton College First XI and had an exceptional career as a schoolboy cricketer. In 1956, Blofeld scored 104 not out for a Public Schools team against the Combined Services, and he was given the Cricket Society's award for the most promising young player of the season. Appointed Eton captain in his final year at school, Blofeld suffered a very serious accident, when he was hit by a bus while riding a bicycle, remaining unconscious for 28 days.
First-class cricket at Cambridge
Although his injuries curtailed his subsequent cricketing career, Blofeld did go on to play 16 first-class matches for Cambridge University during 1958 and 1959. The 1958 side was skippered by future England captain Ted Dexter and his first victim behind the stumps, on his debut for Cambridge against Kent, was also another future England captain, Colin Cowdrey, whom he caught off Dexter's bowling. He was unable to obtain a regular place in the side as a wicket keeper and only played in that position when first choice Chris Howland was unavailable. Of the 16 games that Blofeld played for Cambridge (five in 1958 and 11 in 1959), he kept wicket in only four of them.
In 1959, Blofeld played in half of the university fixtures, including the Varsity Match against Oxford, where he won his Blue "as an opening batsman of sorts... the worst Blue awarded since the war" according to Blofeld himself. Fittingly, he made his only first-class century against the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) at Lord's in July 1959, in his penultimate game for Cambridge. He attended King's College, Cambridge, but left after two years without receiving a degree.
In his only match for Free Foresters, against Cambridge University in 1960, Blofeld kept wicket. His last first-class victim was Howland, captaining Cambridge that year. He played one Gillette Cup match for a minor county, Norfolk against Hampshire in 1965 under the captaincy of Bill Edrich, who was 49 years old at the time. Playing as an opening batsman, Blofeld top scored for his side with 60.
Life and career
Sports journalism
Blofeld took a job at the merchant bank Robert Benson Lonsdale for three years, but it was not to his taste and he drifted into sports journalism. He reported on the England tour to India in 1963–4 for The Guardian, and was close to being picked as an emergency batsman to replace the ill Micky Stewart for the 2nd Test in Bombay. When he was told by David Clark, the tour manager, that he might have to play, Blofeld replied "I would certainly play if needed, but if I scored 50 or upwards in either innings I was damned if I would stand down for the Calcutta Test". On the day of the Test Stewart discharged himself from hospital and played despite his illness. After tea on the first day, Stewart was rushed back to hospital and played no further part in the tour. Blofeld continued as a print journalist until 1972 when he joined the Test Match Special team. He had also previously commentated for ITV in the 1960s.