The colloquial British-English phrase to play a blinder means: to perform outstandingly well.

This phrase occurs, for example, in a review of Birdsong, Rachel Wagstaff’s stage adaptation of Sebastian Faulks’s novel—review by Charles Spencer, published in The Daily Telegraph (London, England) of Thursday 30^th September 2010 [No. 48,313, page 26, column 4]:

The horror of the trenches, and perhaps the even more terrifying claustrophobia of the tunnels dug by the sappers beneath no-man’s-land to try to blow up the German lines, are vividly caught, and sound designer Fergus O’Hare plays a blinder with terrific explosions and rounds of machine-gun fire that make the stalls of the theatre quake.

The earliest occurrences of to play a blinder that I have found indicate that this phrase originated in football (i.e., soccer) in the sense: to play an excellent game.

It seems to me that the underlying image is of a footballer whose speed and skill overpower opponents. This hypothesis is supported by the use, in the following two texts, of the noun blinder in the sense of a ball kicked so hard and fast that it leaves a goalkeeper helpless:

1-: From an account of a football match between Barking and the Tunbridge Wells Rangers, published in The Kent & Sussex Courier and Southern Counties’ Herald (Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England) of Friday 19^th April 1907 [No. 3,203, page 4, column 3]—Ellis was the goalkeeper for Barking; Shelley, Nicol and Baker were playing for the Rangers:

Shelley gave Nicol a pass, and going on he sent Baker through. He rammed in a blinder which Ellis couldn’t look at.

2-: From an account of a football match between Farnborough and Croydon Common, published in the Croydon Times (London, England) of Saturday 19^th December 1908 [No. 4,734, page 2, column 1]:

Twice Common’s goal was in danger from J. Turner and W. Jones, but the defence prevailed. Common soon took the play back and from a forward pass by Lewis, Nixon ran right through and drew first blood with a shot that gave Cassidy no chance, or to use the words of a spectator, scored with a “blinder.”

The earliest occurrences of the phrase to play a blinder that I have found are as follows, in chronological order:

1-: From Junior Football Gossip, published in The Evening Post (Dundee, Angus, Scotland) of Thursday 2^nd January 1902 [No. 610, page 5, column 5]:

Mann was an absentee, and Powrie was drafted to the centre position. “Peem” Watson turned out again and played a “blinder.”

2-: From an account of a football match between Portsmouth and Tunbridge Wells, published in The Kent & Sussex Courier and Southern Counties’ Herald (Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England) of Friday 8^th February 1907 [No. 3,193, page 4, column 1]:

Salter played a “blinder” in the presence of many old friends, and I heard several occupants of the members’ stand express regret that he had left Portsmouth.

3-: From Football Notes, by A. Buick, published in The Hampshire Post and Sussex Observer (Portsmouth, Hampshire, England) of Friday 7^th February 1908 [Vol. 33, No. 1,751, page 2, column 4]:

Warner was in great form, and played what we call a “Blinder.” He always popped up just where he was needed, and his kicking and tackling were splendid.

4-: From R.F.C. Notes, by ‘Ubique’, published in the Berkshire Chronicle (Reading, Berkshire, England) of Wednesday 30^th September 1908 [No. 5,049, page 6, column 1]—R.F.C. stands for Rugby Football Club:

Arthur Chadwick […] has never played such a “blinder” as on Saturday. He seemed like one inspired. Everywhere the ball came there was Chadwick—always getting in the way of the best-intentioned passes, beating his opponent for the possession of the ball nineteen times out of twenty, placing with the accuracy of a yard measure.

5-: From the football column Pompey Notes, by ‘Linesman’, published in The Hampshire Post and Sussex Observer (Portsmouth, Hampshire, England) of Friday 24^th September 1909 [Vol. 34, No. 1,836, page 2, column 2]:

The Portsmouth team has again disappointed its supporters. On Saturday Brentford secured two Southern League points from the Fratton Park lads and on Monday the Saints lowered Pompey’s colours in a Southern Charity Cup match. One never knows what the Portsmouth team is likely to do. If one predicts a win for the team it loses, and then when things go bad and says “Oh, they cannot win after the displays they have given lately” the men come up smiling and, in the words of Kirby, the sage, they play “a blinder.”

6-: From an account of a football match between Blackpool and Hull City (a.k.a. the Tigers), published in the Hull Daily News (Hull, Yorkshire, England) of Monday 12^th December 1910 [No. 10,100, page 3, column 5]:

It was in the second half that the Tigers’ forces were re-arranged […].
Under the new conditions Wally Smith became a centre-half of no mean order, and in that position, in colloquial parlance, he played a “blinder.”

7-: From one of the unconnected sentences making up the column In a Few Lines. Football Bits from Everywhere, published in the Evening Express (Liverpool, Lancashire, England) of Saturday 7^th October 1911 [No. 12,533, page 7, column 6]—the reference is to Harold Uren (1885-1955), who played for Liverpool:

Uren played a “blinder” at Sunderland.

8-: From an account of a football match between Plymouth and Reading, published in the Berkshire Chronicle (Reading, Berkshire, England) of Wednesday 4^th March 1914 [No. 6,018, page 7, column 2]:

Dickenson played a “blinder” at centre-half: indeed, he has not given such a display throughout the season.

9-: From an account of a football match between Stoke and Hull City, published in The Daily Mail (Hull, Yorkshire, England) of Tuesday 2^nd September 1919 [No. 10,589, page 2, column 3]:

HENDRY PLAYS A “BLINDER.”

On present form no goalkeeper in the country is superior to Hendry, the City goalkeeper. He kept out each and every shot that was put in, and followed up his great display at Birmingham by another brilliant exhibition.

10-: From the column Gleanings and Jottings, published in The Lancashire Daily Post (Preston, Lancashire, England) of Saturday 1^st November 1919 [No. 10,409, page 5, column 4]:

Ephraim Longworth, Liverpool’s captain, who played a “blinder” at Burnley last week, says a capable, homely footballer who could take a handful of boys and coach them would be worth his weight in gold if he only produced one tiptop player in five seasons. But clubs are like newspapers—they want their football results quickly.