It is finals time in Premier cricket in most states around the country and over the years there have been some wonderful performances by batsmen and here in Melbourne most notably Bill Lawry's 282 not out for Northcote in the 1965/66 Final against Essendon is one that goes down in folklore with cricket enthusiasts.

However almost seventy-two years ago, 23-year-old Neil Harvey did something that is also quite remarkable for Fitzroy CC in a semi-final in 1951/52 against St Kilda CC.

He scored 254 in the first innings in just 255 minutes and followed up with 126 in the second innings in 152 minutes as Fitzroy won outright by 436 runs.

In doing so Harvey became the first batsman in the history of District cricket to score a century in each innings of the same match and he did so against a pretty fair St Kilda attack that included John Edwards, Jack Hill, and Norm Lynch all of whom took in excess of 500 plus wickets in their career.