William Caffyn — the Surrey all-rounder who had toured Australia twice — emigrated permanently after the 1863-64 Parr tour and spent eight years coaching in Melbourne and Sydney. The most influential of his pupils was Charles Bannerman, who would face the first ball in Test cricket and score the first Test century. Caffyn called Bannerman 'the best bat I ever saw or coached in Australia'. By the time Caffyn returned to England in 1871, Australian cricket had a foundation of professional technique that would translate, within six years, into Test status.
Australian cricket in 1864 had Lawrence as the senior coach in Sydney but no equivalent figure in Melbourne. The Melbourne CC's offer to Caffyn at the close of the Parr tour filled that gap. Melbourne's club cricket had been dominant in the 1850s but lacked the systematic professional coaching that Lawrence had brought to Sydney.
Caffyn had thought about emigrating after the 1861-62 tour but did not commit. The 1863-64 tour, which he played alongside Parr and E.M. Grace, gave him a second look at colonial conditions. The Melbourne CC's offer at the end of the tour persuaded him.
Caffyn (born Reigate, 2 February 1828) had been one of the leading Surrey professionals of the 1850s, central to the great Surrey side that took the unofficial championship seven times in the decade. He had toured Australia with Stephenson in 1861-62 and again with Parr in 1863-64. After the second tour he accepted a coaching engagement with the Melbourne Cricket Club at the close of the 1864 Australian season; rather than sail home with the team, he settled in Melbourne with his wife. After several years in Melbourne he moved to Sydney, where he opened a hairdressing business in conjunction with his wife and took up a coaching position at the Warwick Club. The Warwick was the leading Sydney club and one of its junior members was Charles Bannerman, then in his teens. Caffyn's Australian coaching introduced systematic technique, modern overarm bowling and English-style net practice to the colonial game. He played for New South Wales as a senior professional and helped raise the standard of Sydney cricket toward English county level. He returned to England in 1871, having spent more than seven years coaching the next generation of Australian cricketers. Bannerman, his star pupil, faced the first ball of Test cricket from Alfred Shaw on 15 March 1877 and scored 165 retired hurt, the first Test century. Caffyn published his memoir Seventy-One Not Out in 1899; it is a primary source for both the 1861-62 and 1863-64 tours and for the formative years of Australian cricket.
1861-62: Plays on Stephenson tour to Australia (first visit)
1863-64: Plays on Parr tour (second visit)
Apr 1864: Caffyn accepts Melbourne Cricket Club coaching offer
1865-1867: Coaches in Melbourne
Late 1860s: Moves to Sydney, opens hairdressing shop, joins Warwick Club
Late 1860s: Begins coaching Charles Bannerman among others
1871: Returns to England, plays one or two more matches for Surrey
15 Mar 1877: Bannerman, his pupil, scores first Test century
2 Feb 1828
Born at Reigate, Surrey
1849
First-class debut for Surrey
1861-62
First Australian tour
1863-64
Second tour; emigrates after
1864-1871
Coaches in Melbourne and Sydney
1871
Returns to England
1899
Publishes Seventy-One Not Out
28 Aug 1919
Dies at Reigate aged 91
“The best bat I ever saw or coached in Australia.”
“Cricket has now become a much more scientific game than it used to be in the days of slow underhand.”
Caffyn played a handful of further matches for Surrey in 1872 and 1873 before retiring for good. He lived in Reigate, where he died in 1919 aged 91 — the last surviving member of either of the 1860s Australian tour parties. His memoir Seventy-One Not Out (1899) is a key source for Australian cricket historians.
Together with Charles Lawrence, the most influential English coach in colonial Australian cricket — the man who taught Charles Bannerman.
Caffyn's eight years in Australia made him, alongside Lawrence, the foundational coach of Australian cricket. Bannerman's first-Test century in 1877 was, in a real sense, a vindication of Caffyn's English methods translated to colonial talent. Australian cricket's rapid rise to Test status in the 1870s — culminating in the 1882 Ashes — was partly built on the technical foundations Caffyn laid in Melbourne and Sydney.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.