Kevin Bertram Sidney Jarvis (born 23 April 1953) is a former Englishcricketer, who playedfirst-class cricket forKent andGloucestershire. He was an out-and-out bowler and poor batsman who almost always battedat number 11.

Jarvis was born atDartford inKent. He played a number of games for Kent's Second XI in 1974, and in early June 1975 appeared in a minor warm-up match for the1975 Cricket World Cup against thePakistanis in which he took the wickets ofSadiq Mohammad andZaheer Abbas. However, his first team debut was a few days later when he appeared in aJohn Player League match againstHampshire; he took the wicket ofJohn Rice. A few days later still, he made his first-class début againstWorcestershire, taking the single wicket ofBasil D'Oliveira.

Jarvis finished 1975 with 40 first-class wicketsat 29.65 and 118List A wickets at 20.63. The following season he did slightly worse in first-class cricket, but rather better in the first-class game; he did, however, take 4/34 as Kent beatWorcestershire in theBenson & Hedges Cup final.^[1] 1977 saw Kent share theCounty Championship withMiddlesex, and Jarvis win hiscounty cap. He also claimed five wickets in a first-class innings for the first time, something he managed on three occasions that summer, including 7/58 against Northamptonshire. He also played in another B&H Cup final – though Kent lost this one to Gloucestershire. That winter he was selected to accompanyDH Robins' side toSri Lanka.

1978 was a good year for him, as Kent won the Championship outright, and Jarvis himself picked up 80 first-class wickets at a little over 23 runs apiece, including what proved to be his career best of 8/97 against Worcestershire in August. He also appeared in his third successive B&H Cup final, taking 2/19 as Kent beatDerbyshire.^[2] In August he was selected for Young England against theNew Zealanders atLeicester, but had no success in his 19 overs.^[3] Jarvis's 1979 season, however, was not so successful as he failed to reach 40 first-class wickets.

He had a somewhat nondescript 1980, but in 1981 he managed 81 first-class wickets, including fivefive-wicket hauls, as well as 34 one-day dismissals (averaging under 17): both career best aggregates, in the former case outright and in the latter case equal with the following season. In 1982 Jarvis came close to making a Test debut forEngland atManchester againstIndia, being on stand by for the injuredPaul Allott before England instead decided to pick an extraspinner,Geoff Miller.^[4] 1982 also saw Jarvis appear for England B against the Pakistanis at Leicester, dismissingMudassar Nazar andMajid Khan, and in late September he went toJamaica and played for an International XI against a West Indies XI atKingston; this was the game in whichEddie Hemmings took 10-175, the most expensiveten-wicket haul in first-class cricket.^[5]

Jarvis had rather an unsuccessful season in taking only 30 wickets at over 52 in first-class cricket during 1983, but improved greatly the following year to claim 72 scalps at under 25. The 1984 season also saw him take 3–47 in theNatWest Trophy final against Middlesex, although Kent lost the game by four wickets. In 1985 he had his last really successful season for Kent, passing 50 first-class wickets for the final time as well as taking a one-day career best 5–24 againstNottinghamshire in June. He continued to play for Kent for two more seasons, but was no longer an automatic choice and he left for Gloucestershire at the end of 1987.

In 1988, Jarvis was used predominantly as a one-day player by his new county, appearing in 15 List A games – 14 in theRefuge Assurance League and one in theRefuge Assurance Cup — but only three first-class matches. Indeed, he claimed only a single first-class wicket that season. 1989, though, provided more balance as he played 13 first-class and 15 one-day games, and provided his best performances for Gloucestershire: he took 5–15 againstGlamorgan in the County Championship and 5–32 againstOxfordshire in the NatWest Trophy. He also passed 20 with the bat for the only time in first-team cricket, hitting 32 against Hampshire in July.

Jarvis played a few more times for Gloucestershire in 1990 but had little success, though he was selected forMCC in a one-day game against the New Zealanders in early May. However, over the season as a whole he averaged well over 40 in both forms of the game, and left the county after that season. Later, he joinedHerefordshire to playminor counties cricket. This brought him one final List A appearance, in the 1995 NatWest Trophy againstDurham; although Herefordshire were crushed by 207 runs, he dismissed twoTest cricketers inJohn Morris andManoj Prabhakar. Jarvis also appeared in that year'sMCC Trophy final, but took only one wicket as Herefordshire lost by two wickets toCambridgeshire.

• Kevin Jarvis atESPNcricinfo

• 1953 births
• Living people
• English cricketers
• Gloucestershire cricketers
• Kent cricketers
• Herefordshire cricketers
• Cricketers from Dartford
• Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers
• D. H. Robins' XI cricketers
• Young England cricketers
• 20th-century English sportsmen

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