William Caffyn in Australia — The Surrey Pro who Coached Charles Bannerman, 1864-1871

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.

“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.