Robert Harvey

Who was Robert Harvey?

Robert Lyon Harvey MBE was a South African cricketer who played in 2 Tests in 1935-36.

Harvey was a right-handed middle-order batsman and a right-arm medium-pace bowler. He played first-class cricket for Natal in two matches in 1933-34 without success.

But when he was picked again two years later for Natal in the match against the 1935-36 Australians, he scored 16 and 104. Although eventually bowled by Clarrie Grimmett, he resisted for three and three-quarters hours, and "alternated periods of hard hitting with rigid defence". After Grimmett had led Australia to two Test victories in the first three matches of a five-game series, with no South African batsman apart from Dudley Nourse making more than 66 runs in any one innings, Harvey was picked for the fourth Test. He had limited success, scoring 5 and 17 as the South Africans suffered their worst defeat of the series, though he did hit one six off Grimmett.