Hat-trick

In some sports - primarily football and ice hockey - a hat trick is the scoring of three consecutive goals by the same player in a match. Depending on the sport and the language, it is sometimes necessary for the same player to score three goals within one period (e.g. half-time, third period).

The term is also frequently used in sports reporting when an individual athlete or team wins a championship, cup or other sports competition three times in a row ("title hat trick"), has achieved a special sporting achievement three times in a row (e.g. "medal hat trick") or receives a special award three times in a row.

In international football, the scoring of three goals by one player in one match counts as a hat-trick, which is why, for example, the three English goals in the 1966 World Cup final by Geoff Hurst are considered a hat-trick. In order to distinguish the "German" hat trick from the international definition, the terms "real hat trick", "flawless hat trick" or "classic hat trick" are often used colloquially. In German football, a hat-trick means that the three goals were scored in a single half of the match, which is why the attributes "flawless", "classic" or "golden" are not necessary, but are still generally used.

In motorsport - especially in Formula 1 - a "hat trick" is the achievement when a driver qualifies first on the grid (pole position), wins the race and achieves the fastest lap time of all competitors in the race.

In addition, the term "hat trick" is now also used figuratively in many other areas of life and culture, such as winning a film award, a music or other cultural competition, a readers' or viewers' poll three times.

The term is also used in computer games. For example, in Capture the Flag, a popular mode integrated into many online shooter games, scoring three consecutive points by the same player is considered a "hat trick".

Word Origin

The term has its origins in cricket. As far as is known today, in 1858 at Hyde Park Ground in Sheffield, Heathfield Harman ("HH") Stephenson became the first bowler to convert three successive throws into three wickets. He was presented with a hat (English hat) as a special award for this sporting achievement. In connection with the word for a feat (English trick), this developed into the phrase hat trick, which was adopted as a foreign word in German usage when written together.

Cricket

So far, there have been 45 hat-tricks in Test cricket and 49 in One-Day Internationals. In Twenty20s, there have been 13 hat-tricks so far (as on 21 February 2020).

Four wickets in four consecutive balls is sometimes referred to as a double hat-trick, as in a sense it contains two sequences of three consecutive wickets each. Although there have been several instances in first-class cricket, it has only occurred once in international cricket, and that was during the 2007 Cricket World Cup match between Sri Lanka and South Africa. Sri Lanka fast bowler Lasith Malinga achieved this feat when he successively bowled out first Shaun Pollock and Andrew Hall and then Jacques Kallis and Makhaya Ntini with the first two balls of his next over.