Mynn vs Dearman — Brighton Rematch, August 1837

Single-wicket cricket of the late 1830s was structured around a small number of marquee names — Mynn, Pilch, Marsden, Dearman — and high stakes. Dearman's reputation was tied to the Sheffield betting market, and the 1836 defeat had hurt both his pride and his backers' pockets.

Mynn had spent most of 1837 recovering from the Leicester leg injury. By August he was fit enough to play but had lost weight and was, by Mynn standards, undertrained. Dearman's backers thought they saw an opening.

Dearman's pride had not survived the 1836 defeat. He challenged Mynn to a return match for £100 a side, this time on neutral ground at Brighton, the great single-wicket centre of the south. Mynn — only just back in cricket after the near-loss of his right leg the previous autumn — accepted. The two-day match was played at the Brighton ground on 21-22 August 1837. Mynn batted first and made another large score; Dearman, faced again with the Kent man's fast roundarm, was bowled out cheaply in both innings. Mynn won by an innings and 67 runs. The crowd reportedly numbered several thousand and the press, north and south, treated the result as conclusive. Dearman never sought another match and his reputation as the leading northern batsman did not survive the second defeat.

Dearman never recovered his reputation. He played fewer single-wicket matches after 1837 and is rarely mentioned in the cricketing press of the 1840s. Mynn went on to dominate single-wicket cricket through the late 1830s and into the 1840s.