South Yarra paceman William Fraser-Smith destroys Parkville District in Mercantile grand final
A spectacular burst of 8/26 from South Yarra fast bowler William Fraser-Smith destroyed Parkville in the Mercantile Cricket Association A-grade grand final. Now, the right-arm quick tells us he has his sights set on bigger things.
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Almost 20 years ago the acclaimed writer Gideon Haigh wrote a book about South Yarra Cricket Club called The Vincibles.
On Sunday at Como Park Yarras stalwart Haigh watched on as young fast bowler William Fraser-Smith became invincible, at least to the Parkville District batsmen.
The 20-year-old grabbed 8-26 off 12 overs to rout the Parkville side for 41 as it chased 259 in the Mercantile Cricket Association A-grade grand final.
Tall, possessing an easy action, swinging the ball under clouds and hitting a good pace, Fraser-Smith had batsmen coming and going like the traffic on Alexandra Ave.
He started his hatchet job late on day one, pinning Chris Thomson LBW to send the visitors to stumps at 1-0.
Early on Sunday he knocked over Richard Brown as Parkville District, chasing its fifth consecutive premiership, wobbled at 2-2.
Rain brought a one-hour delay in play.
When it resumed Fraser-Smith, arrowing in on the stumps, grabbed five more wickets to flatten PD.
Sean Wilson (1) was caught behind; Dave Bennett (7) was snapped up at slip; Nathan Green (2) played on; Lachlan Laidlaw was leg-before first ball; and Terry Wong (8) was out hit-wicket as he tried a hook shot.
The right-armer had 7-11 at lunch. Parkville District went in at 7-21 and the match was over.
All interest now concerned Fraser-Smith. Could he get all 10 wickets? James Green ended the talk when he bowled William Tonkin around the legs for eight.
Fraser-Smith claimed the ninth wicket and the tenth was a run-out, Yarras captain Ryan Hanna getting a hand on a drive back to him. The ball went on the stumps and found Parkville District No 11 Andrew Green (3) short of his ground. It was that sort of day for the Parkville side, which the previous day had toiled away for 102.4 overs to dismiss South Yarra.
Its own innings lasted 23.4 overs. Wong and Cassius Hynam (8no) top scored. What a sorry scorecard.
But what a performance from man-of-the-match Fraser-Smith, who came through Toorak-Prahran juniors, attended Scotch College and had a stint at Premier club St Kilda.
He took 49 wickets for the season.
“To come out this morning and get a few early ones and get us off to a good start, I was very happy,’’ he said in the rooms after the match.
“It was a great feeling, especially as it was a grand final. I was just trying to get a bit of outswing early doors, get a few edges. I like bowling to lefties. Try to get it back through the gate or LBW by swinging it back in. It was handy they had a few lefties.’’
Fraser-Smith arrived at South Yarra last season, joining his father, Lachlan, at the club.
He said he would go back to St Kilda next season.
“I’ll have a proper pre-season, get in good shape and see where it goes,’’ he said.
Hanna described his young fast bowler’s performance as “absolutely amazing’’.
“He’s been a stalwart for us all year,’’ Hanna said.
“He came from D Sunday (grade) last year, he was a bit of an unknown entity, but once we faced him in the pre-season nets everyone knew we were on a winner with him. He’s been consistently good from day one through to the grand final. He’s an absolute class bowler. He’ll go on to achieve bigger and better things. It’s been a pleasure having him at the club.’’
The Yarras won their first premiership in six years after being 4-24 on the first day.
Hanna said the middle and lower-orders completed a “tremendous recovery and fight back … tremendous guts and character were shown’’.
“We were expecting them (Parkville District) to come hard today. We expected it to be a real dogfight. … 260 against a side that’s four-time champions, we thought that was a par score.
“But our opening bowler put on one of the most clinical displays of quick bowling you’ll ever see. He ran through them like a knife through butter.’’
The Mercantile association was the only competition that went ahead with its grand finals.
Hanna said the Yarras were happy to play.
As the minor premiers and highest-ranked side they would have been declared premiers if the season was scrapped.
“But we didn’t want to be handed a premiership. We always wanted to test ourselves,’’ Hanna said.
“At the same time we were astute to the situation (with the coronavirus) and social responsibilities had to come into it. We think we managed that quite well. We know that we had duty of care with distancing and taking ownership of doing things right and minimising risk.’’