Single-Wicket Cricket and Mynn's Championship — High-Stakes Cricket of the 1840s

Single-wicket had been the high-stakes betting form of cricket since the 1770s. By the 1840s most of the leading professionals played it occasionally for big purses.

Mynn's 1838 victory established him as champion. Successive challenges through the 1840s kept the title in play; the 1846 Mynn-Felix match was the climax.

Single-wicket was an ancient form of cricket dating to the eighteenth century, in which two, three or sometimes four players formed a side and played a simplified version of the game (no leg byes, restricted run-areas, batter retired if struck on the leg). It had been the high-stakes betting form of cricket since the 1770s and remained popular through the 1840s alongside the eleven-a-side game. Mynn won the single-wicket championship of England in 1838 and held it against successive challengers — including Pilch in 1840 and Felix in 1846 — for nearly a decade. The Mynn-Felix match of August 1846 at Lord's, billed as 'champion of England', drew a crowd of 4,000 and stakes of £200 a side; Mynn won by an innings. Single-wicket cricket faded through the 1850s as the All-England Eleven format became dominant and as betting on cricket fell out of fashion under Victorian moral pressure, but in the 1840s it remained a substantial part of the professional game.

Mynn lost the championship in 1846 (by some accounts) or held it to retirement (by others); the title became unclaimed in the 1850s as single-wicket faded.