The expectation was they would carry Henry Blofeld out of the Test Match Special commentary box in a coffin. He has always loved the cricket and the microphone in equal measure. And he is one of life’s great troupers. Yet now we learn that, at 77, he has announced his retirement from TMS in September. It is a bit of a shock.
His last game on air is scheduled to be England’s third Test against West Indies at Lord’s. When he bids farewell expect something more flowery than John Arlott’s final sentence on TMS in 1980, which was: “After a word from Trevor Bailey it will be Christopher Martin-Jenkins”. For Henry, pigeons will presumably assemble around St John’s Wood like the Red Arrows.
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