Henry Blofeld - Test Match Special

Test Match Special

He has been a regular commentator for Test Match Special, except for a period at BSkyB from 1991 to 1994. Blofeld's cricket commentary is celebrated for his plummy voice and his idiosyncratic mention of superfluous details regarding the scene, including things like construction cranes or numbers of pink shirts in the crowd; as well as pigeons, buses, aeroplanes and helicopters that happen to be passing by. After the tea and lunch breaks he is also known to talk for extended periods of time about the food on offer, in particular cakes, with occasional interruptions to describe the situation on the field. He also uses the phrase "my dear old thing", or variants thereof, to address fellow commentators and guests. A trademark phrase is "And there is no run" (after a batsman has chosen not to run).

He frequently makes errors, for example failing to identify players correctly (one example was calling the England spinner Monty Panesar "Monty Python", and paceman Ryan Sidebottom "Ryan Stringfellow"), and is quite often lost for words in the more exciting passages of play. This does not 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 banner proclaiming "Henry Blofeld is God".

Blowers has been commentating less recently; he did not commentate at the 2007 World Cup despite having covered the opening ceremonies of the two preceding World Cups in 2003 and 1999 for TMS to popular acclaim. Many TMS fans wondered whether he was choosing to step aside, or if the BBC was gradually reducing his commitments. Speaking to Michael Parkinson on BBC Radio 2 on 26 August 2007, when asked by his interviewer why he was commentating less these days, after initially attempting to side-step the question Blowers observed that "they obviously want to bring in new faces", and added that during the Ashes tour in Australia during the winter of 2006/7 "I felt in a funny way that I wasn't part of it any more". That said, as of summer 2008 he appears to have resumed his full quota of commentary stints on (at least home) Tests and ODIs, with his enthusiasm undiminished. He was not present in the commentary team with the 2009 test series of England against South Africa but delighted his many fans by returning once more for the Summer 2010 England versus Pakistan series. Blowers announced on his Twitter feed on 1 September 2010 that he would not be covering the Ashes in Australia during 2010-11, much to the disappointment of his fans. However, he returned again for the Indian tour of England in Summer 2011, going on to cover some of the following one day internationals. In January 2012, he returned to overseas commentary, as part of the TMS team, alongside Christopher Martin-Jenkins and Jonathan Agnew, that covered England's tour of the United Arab Emirates against Pakistan. He has also been commentating on the current England tour of India (November 2012)