Hat-trick

A hat-trick in sports is associated with succeeding at anything three times in three consecutive attempts. In North America it is often rendered as hat trick, with no hyphen. (The Oxford English Dictionary has it unhyphenated and gives a variety of examples published in the 19th and 20th centuries both with and without the hyphen.)

Etymology

In the Victorian era, the term "hat trick" referred to a common trick by magicians, where the magician used a top hat. At first, they would appear before the audience wearing the hat, which they would remove from the head and put upside down on a nearby table (on stage). Later in the show, the magician would take out 3 rabbits, one after another, from the hat. In modern times, this phenomenon has largely referred to any three consecutive feats, goals, wickets etc. by the same player.

The term is now very commonly used in cricket, and was connected with the custom of giving a hat or cap to a bowler who achieved the feat of taking three wickets in a row. It may be connected with the concept of giving someone their "cap", i.e. acknowledging them as a regular member of a representative team. Another school of thought mentions that a bowler was challenged if he could take three in three. Hats were passed around to collect the odds. The bowler succeeded and collected the large amount of cash. Thus the term hat-trick could have been also derived from this event.

Cricket

A hat-trick occurs in cricket when a bowler dismisses three batsmen with consecutive deliveries in the same match. The deliveries may be interrupted by an over bowled by another bowler from the other end of the pitch or the other team's innings, but must be three consecutive deliveries by the individual bowler. Only wickets attributed to the bowler count; i.e., run outs do not contribute to a hat-trick.

Hat-tricks are very rare and as such are highly treasured by bowlers. The term was first used to describe HH Stephenson's feat in 1858^[1] and was used in print for the first time in 1878.^[2] In Test cricket history there have been just 36 hat-tricks, the first achieved by Fred Spofforth for Australia against England in 1879, and the most recent by Irfan Pathan for India against Pakistan in 2006. In 1912, Australian Jimmy Matthews achieved the feat twice in one game against South Africa. The only other players to achieve two hat-tricks are Australia's Hugh Trumble, against England in 1902 and 1904, and Pakistan's Wasim Akram, in separate games against Sri Lanka in 1999.

In One-Day International cricket there have been 24 hat-tricks up to March 28 2007, the first by Jalal-ud-Din for Pakistan against Australia in 1982. Three players have taken two one-day international hat tricks in their careers: Wasim Akram and Saqlain Mushtaq of Pakistan and Chaminda Vaas of Sri Lanka. (Akram therefore has four international hat-tricks in total).

Taking two wickets in two consecutive deliveries is occasionally known as a brace, or being on a hat-trick. This is only a run-up to the hat-trick. If a hat-trick is not achieved, it is not called a brace.

Four wickets in four balls is sometimes called a double hat-trick,^{[3] [4]} as it will contain two different sets of three consecutively dismissed batsmen.^{[citation needed]}. The only instance of this in international cricket occurred in the 2007 World Cup, when Sri Lanka's Lasith Malinga managed the feat against South Africa by dismissing Shaun Pollock, Andrew Hall, Jacques Kallis and Makhaya Ntini, though it has occurred on other occasions in first-class cricket. Kevan James took four wickets in four balls and scored a century in the same game in 1996. The Cricinfo report on the game claimed that this was unique in cricket. [2] [3]

Marbles

In marbles, a hat-trick occurs when a player hits all marbles in a single turn.

Hockey

In both field hockey and ice hockey a hat-trick is when a player scores three goals in a game. Although people may consider a hat trick as three goals scored in a row, this is commonly confused with a natural hat trick (below). The term was brought to ice hockey in the 1940s when Sammy Taft, a Toronto hatter, gave free hats to Maple Leafs players who scored three goals in a game. It is not certain whether he picked up this practice from cricket.

If a member of the home team in ice hockey scores a hat-trick, fans acknowledge it by throwing their own hats from the stands onto the ice, often causing a delay in play. This custom was started in Guelph, Ontario with the Guelph Biltmore Mad Hatters, sponsored by Biltmore Hats. Mr. Biltmore would throw his tophat onto the ice for the player that scored 3 goals. Fans soon followed his lead and offered their hats to the player as well. In 1996, the Florida Panthers fans celebrated goals (not just hat-tricks) by throwing plastic rats onto the ice, which were then cleaned up by men dressed in Orkin exterminator outfits. The history of this goes back to an incident in December of 1995, when Scott Mellanby scored what teammate John Vanbiesbrouck dubbed a "rat trick" after ridding the Panthers' locker room at Miami Arena of an unwanted rat with his stick on the same night he scored a pair of goals. When Mellanby scored a hat trick in a later game some fans threw plastic rats on the ice, mimicking the octopus thrown by Detroit Red Wings fans, and the practice soon became universal for Panthers home goals. The NHL later responded by banning the throwing of objects onto the ice by fans at the cost of a penalty for the home team, but specifically allowed the traditional throwing of hats to continue. This has been loosely enforced, however, as witnessed after the Nashville Predators' Paul Kariya scored a hat trick on April 18, 2006: two catfish were thrown on the ice and no penalty was given.

Former Blackhawk Bill Mosienko holds the NHL record for scoring the quickest hat trick. He scored 3 goals in 21 seconds against the New York Rangers on March 23, 1952.

The term natural hat trick (or Nat-Trick) refers to when a player scores three goals consecutively in a single game. The goals do not have to happen in the same period.

A player accomplishes a Gordie Howe hat trick by scoring a goal, getting an assist, and participating in a fight, all in the same game. While this description has remained popular, it doesn't satisfy the conditions of a hat trick. Mario Lemieux once accomplished what was unofficially referred to as a "Mario Lemieux hat trick" in 1993, by receiving radiation treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma the day of the game, and then scoring a goal and an assist that night against the Philadelphia Flyers. He has also recorded a "5-Goal Hat Trick" or the "Ultimate Hat Trick" or a "quintella", in which he scored in all five possible game situations in one game. He scored on a Powerplay, shorthanded, even strength, penalty shot and an empty net goal. Calgary Flames star Jarome Iginla came close on February 23, 2003 against the Phoenix Coyotes: he scored on a powerplay, shorthanded, even strength and an empty net goal, but Lemieux is the only player to score the "Quintella" in NHL history.

Football (Soccer)

A hat-trick occurs in football when a player scores three goals in a single game, although there are various contrasting interpretations as to the exact criteria of a valid football hat-trick. It is commonly held that the goals can be scored at any time in the match, whether in normal, injury or extra time, and for some this is the only condition necessary to satisfy the definition of a hat-trick.^[5] As with other goal-scoring statistics, goals in a penalty shootout are not counted.

There also exists the widely accepted concept of the 'flawless' hat-trick, which differs in that all three goals must be scored consecutively within one period of play.^[6] Also referred to in football is the "Perfect Hat-trick" (also known as the "Golden hat-trick" or the "Classic hat-trick"). This relates to the scoring of three goals in a single match, one with each foot and one with the head. A recent example of this was Peter Crouch's hat-trick for Liverpool against Arsenal in March 2007. ^[7]

Perhaps one of the most notable hat-tricks of all time was scored by Geoff Hurst during the 1966 World Cup Final. It is famous for being the only ever scored in a World Cup Final match.

A hat-trick in football is also referred to as claiming the match ball as traditionally the scorer of the hat-trick claims the match ball as a souvenir of the feat.

The world record for fastest hat-trick belongs to former Ross County player Tommy Ross, who scored three goals in 90 seconds, versus Nairn County F.C. in Victoria Park in 1964. Robbie Fowler currently holds the fastest hat-trick in Premiership history by scoring 3 goals within 4 minutes and 18 seconds for Liverpool against Arsenal in 1994.

See also: FIFA World Cup hat-tricks

Rugby

In both codes of rugby football (rugby union and rugby league) a hat-trick is scored if a player scores three or more tries in a game. A related concept is that of a "full house", scoring a try, conversion, penalty goal, and drop goal.

Baseball

When one batter strikes out three times in a single baseball game it is sometimes jokingly referred to as a hat trick. Four strikeouts in one game is referred to as a golden sombrero, five in one game is called a platinum sombrero, and six in one game is known as a Horn, after Sam Horn of the Baltimore Orioles who accomplished the feat in an extra-inning game in 1991. Alex S. Gonzalez of the Toronto Blue Jays tied the record in 1998.

Auto racing

In auto racing, a hat trick is attained by a driver who (1) wins a race (2) from pole position while (3) garnering the fastest recorded lap of the race. If a rider/driver leads the most laps during the race, in conjunction with winning the race, starting from pole and setting the fastest lap, this would be considered a double hat trick.

Computer Games

The Hat Trick is featured in Unreal Tournament 2004 Capture the Flag if one player captures the flag three times. These three captures need not be consecutive.

There is an online football manager game called Hattrick aka HT, which has about one million active players.

See also

• Gordie Howe hat trick
• Nap hand
• Hat Trick Productions
• Test cricket hat-tricks
• Trifecta
• America, the 70's folk-rock band, entitled their third album Hat Trick, clearly hoping for their third recording success in a row.

Wikipedia information about Hat-trick This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Hat-trick". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.