Edinburgh Fringe 2015 – Blofeld & Baxter: Rogues on the Road

From commentary to comedy as cricket legends hit Edinburgh
Commentary and comedy: Blofeld & Baxter
Adam Bloodworth24 August 2015

Being a fan of cricket is only one reason to see Blofeld & Baxter: Rogues on the Road. The pair of commentary legends are as used to post-match antics as they are to covering the sport itself, and their lifetime of tomfoolery makes for hilarious viewing, regardless of age or sporting disposition, in this romping dissection of their, ahem, professional pasts.

Henry Blofeld and Peter Baxter, in colourful boating jackets, stand in front of an etched map of the world which Blofeld updates with huge stick-on suitcase tags to illustrate their travels, though their work largely took them to the same places - like India, the UK and Australia - where they worked as broadcasters. Together, as commentary veterans of classic radio show Test Match Special, the pair have around 80 years' experience on the radio (and off it...) to fess up to.

They might waggle their fingers at me for airing such a statistic, but they shouldn't - the duo's antics on the road are rip-roaring, told never cautiously: take a night time trip of Baxter's to his hotel room toilet which led him, stark naked, into a ground floor restaurant with only a doily for protection. And what do they think of their colleagues, of ex-England cricketer Geoffrey Boycott, let's say? "Dear old Geoffrey, he's thrill a minute". Or of the commentator Mike Selby: he's, in cricket speak, "something akin to mid season form."

Whether the references fly or not, Blofeld are Baxter are gleaming role models for their sport. They are also bastions of British robustness, of both humour and manner, which we so cherish. Their jokes are intelligent and specific, yet fully relatable - cricket barely gets a look in when there's Delhi Belly on the menu.

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