... himself attended Eton, where he was a highly promising cricketer. He kept wicket for the College's First XI, and was captain in his final year. In 1956 (aged 16) he 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.
It was in his final year at Eton that he was hit by a bus while riding a bicycle. He was seriously injured, and in a coma for 28 days. This had serious repercussions for 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 Blofeld's first victim behind the stumps, on his debut for Cambridge against Kent, was another future England captain: Colin Cowdrey – caught off Dexter's bowling. He was second choice behind the stumps for Cambridge, behind Chris Howland – who went on to play a total of 64 first class matches for Sussex and Kent. 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.
He played one match for Free Foresters (a nomadic club whose annual matches against Oxford and Cambridge universities had first class status until 1968). It was against Cambridge University in 1960, and he kept wicket. His last first–class victim was none other than Chris Howland, captain of Cambridge that year.
Blofeld also played one Gillette Cup match for Norfolk, a minor county, against Hampshire in 1965 – under the captaincy of the former Middlesex and England player Bill Edrich, who was 49 years old at the time. Playing as an opening batsman, Blofeld was Norfolk's top scorer with 60.
He took a job at the merchant bank Robert Benson Lonsdale, but it was not to his taste and after three years 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 for the 2nd Test in Bombay, replacing Micky Stewart who was unwell. 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; but after tea on the first day he was rushed back to hospital, and he 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 previously commentated for ITV in the 1960s.
On Test Match Special, Blofeld's commentary was characterised by his plummy voice and his whimsical descriptions of superfluous details regarding the scene, including such things as pigeons inside the ground or the clothes of spectators, as well as any buses, trains or aircraft that might happen to be passing by. He was also inclined to use the rather idiosyncratic phrase "my dear old thing" when speaking to his colleagues and guests.
He retired from Test Match Special in 2017. On a lap of the ground following his final match – England versus the West Indies, at Lord's – he was given a standing ovation.
[The above is a slightly edited extract from Henry Blofeld's Wikipedia page – which in turn relies heavily on an article in Cricinfo, posted in 2012 and entitled Desperate Times ... Send for Blowers.]
© Haydn Thompson 2020