Jarvis was born at Dartford in Kent. 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 the 1975 Cricket World Cup against the Pakistanis in which he took the wickets of Sadiq Mohammad and Zaheer Abbas. However, his first team debut was a few days later when he appeared in a John Player League match against Hampshire; he took the wicket of John Rice. A few days later still, he made his first-class début against Worcestershire, taking the single wicket of Basil D'Oliveira.