George Jarvis, who played one or two games alongside his brother Charles, was probably the first Nottinghamshire batsman to have a reputation beyond his own county.
Born in Radford on 24 June 1800, he was, in the 1820s, undoubtedly the best batter with the Nottingham Old Club, principally noted for his 'off-hitting, at which he excelled'; he also bowled fast under-arm and generally fielded mid-off.
His first recorded match was for the Old Club v XVI of Leicester in 1821, with brother Charles, making 2 and 4 in an innings defeat. His top score for the Old Club was 59 v Sheffield (Hyde Park) in 1831.
George Jarvis played in the first-ever North v South match in 1836, making 11 and 7no as the North won by 6 wickets. In the same season he made the first of his five appearances in the Players v Gentlemen fixture at Lord’s. He played 37 First-Class games, including one against England for the unlikely sounding combined Yorkshire- Nottinghamshire-Leicester XI. Thirteen of those games were for Nottingham and just six for Nottinghamshire – Jarvis is so early in the history of the county side that he played only one match at Trent Bridge, his last recorded game which was v Kent in August 1841.
For Nottinghamshire he scored 119 runs at 9.91 with a top score of 24; in all First-Class cricket he totalled 814 runs at 12.71 with two half-centuries; he also took nine First-Class wickets.
George Jarvis was a lacemaker by trade who died in Nottingham a few weeks short of his 80th birthday on 27 March 1880.
July 2020
Nottinghamshire First-Class Number: 7