By the late 1850s the Reigate-born William Caffyn had emerged as the leading all-rounder in the strongest county side in England, scoring runs in the middle order for Surrey and bowling effective right-arm medium-fast roundarm. Caffyn was on the 1859 North America tour, both 1860s Australian tours, and after emigrating in 1864 became the foundational professional coach of Australian cricket.
Surrey's rise as a county had been built on professional recruitment. Caffyn from Reigate, Lockyer from Croydon, Mortlock from Croydon and others were brought in by the Oval committee in the early 1850s. Caffyn was the most versatile of them.
The 1855 and 1856 seasons saw Caffyn establish himself as the leading scorer for Surrey. By 1857 he was a fixture in the UAEE side and a candidate for any English representative team. The Winchester engagement in 1858 added winter income and prestige.
William Caffyn was born at Reigate on 2 February 1828 and made his first-class debut for Surrey in 1849. Through the early 1850s he was a steady county batsman; by 1855 he had developed into a free-stroking middle-order player and a useful roundarm bowler. He was a regular member of the United All-England Eleven from its founding in 1852 and a key figure in F.P. Miller's Champion County Surrey side from 1854 onwards. In 1858 Caffyn took up a winter coaching engagement at Winchester College, the first of four winters spent there, and the model for the professional-coach role that would shape English public school cricket for the rest of the century. He was selected for Parr's North America tour in 1859, the Stephenson tour to Australia in 1861-62 and the Parr tour to Australia and New Zealand in 1863-64. After the second Australian trip he decided to emigrate, taking up a coaching post at the Melbourne Cricket Club and later at the Warwick Club in Sydney. He stayed in Australia until 1871, returning briefly to England before settling there permanently. His memoir 'Seventy-One Not Out', published in 1899, is one of the most readable and historically important Victorian cricket autobiographies.
2 Feb 1828: Caffyn born at Reigate
1849: First-class debut for Surrey
1852: Joins UAEE on its founding
Mid-1850s: Becomes leading all-rounder for F.P. Miller's Surrey
1858: Winter coaching engagement at Winchester begins
1859: Selected for Parr's North America tour
1861-62 and 1863-64: Tours Australia twice
1864: Emigrates to Australia
1899: Publishes Seventy-One Not Out
1828
Born at Reigate
1849
First-class debut for Surrey
1852
Joins UAEE on its founding
1858
Begins winter coaching at Winchester
1859
Tours North America with Parr
1861-62
Tours Australia with Stephenson
1863-64
Tours Australia and NZ with Parr; emigrates
1899
Publishes Seventy-One Not Out
“Caffyn was a very fine batsman, free and attractive in style, and the Oval and Fenner's at Cambridge were the grounds that suited him best.”
Caffyn's emigration in 1864 was decisive for Australian cricket: as coach at the Melbourne Cricket Club and the Warwick Club in Sydney through the late 1860s and early 1870s, he taught the technique that produced Charles Bannerman, the Bannerman brothers, F.R. Spofforth's contemporaries and the first generations of the Test era. He returned permanently to England in 1871.
The leading professional all-rounder of the late 1850s and the man whose post-1864 emigration shaped the technical development of Australian cricket more than any other Englishman.
Caffyn is a hinge figure between English mid-Victorian professional cricket and the rise of Australian cricket. His tour memoirs are among the best primary sources for the era; his coaching shaped the first Australian Test players. The Surrey of the late 1850s was largely his.
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.