A Vote for Blowers

I was looking for coverage of today's elections in the U.K. when I ran across BBC Live Five Sports Extra coverage of the England-Pakistan test match cricket from Barbados. This is one of those Twenty20 matches and some sort of qualifier for something. I don't really follow cricket from abroad much, other than those big blips on the radar, such as the Ashes. But, given that the polls had not yet closed in the U.K., I listened in (on the computer). The announcing team included the wonderful Henry Calthorpe Blofeld, aka "Blowers." Blofeld is now 70 and a cricket announcing legend. He is well-known for providing commentary on all sorts of things other than cricket. But, given the length of a cricket match, an announcer needs to be able to comment on many other things. However, Blowers doesn't restrict himself to chattering on at length about the players, their statistics, cricket gossip etc. He can wax eloquent about buses on the street outside the stadium, umbrellas glistening in the rain, the travels of a beach ball or the progress of the "Mexican wave" in the stands, various birds (he's a big fan of pigeons) and other creatures that he might spot, or the quality of the food being served at lunch. Today from Barbados, he carried on a detailed discussion of the sound system that was amplifying the steel-drum version of "God Save the Queen." And, in typical Blofeld fashion, he quickly spotted a frog hopping across the pitch and provided ample commentary on its movements. Elections are a dime a dozen, but Blowers is priceless.