George Jarvis

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George Jarvis (born 24 June 1800, Radford, Nottingham; died 27 March 1880, Nottingham) was an English first-class cricketer who played for Nottingham Cricket Club in the early 19th century. Brother of the less distinguished Charles Davis, he was a right-handed batsman and right- and under-arm fast bowler. He represented the first-class Nottinghamshire outfit from 1835 to 1841, playing 37 matches and scoring 814 runs at an average of 12.71, with a highest score of 59. He bowled only 72 recorded deliveries, taking nine wickets and conceding just sixteen runs.

Jarvis made his first-class debut in 1821 and soon established himself as the leading batsman in Nottingham. He was good enough to feature in such representative fixtures as North v. South and Gentlemen v. Players.

He was one of eleven men who took part in the county's first-ever first-class fixture, against Leicester and Sheffield in 1826, when Tom Marsden hit up an unprecedented 227, routing the neophytes by an innings and 203 runs.

A lacemaker by trade, he spent the early days of his life in garden, a vocation to which he returned in 1873. Interviewed that year, at the age of 72, he was fit, robust and confident enough to offer £200 to anyone of the same age to beat him in a single-wicket contest. Certainly, many of the single-wicket matches of his prime were marred by gambling controversies.