Hat trick

Have you ever achieved the same thing three times only to be told you have completed a hat trick, when what you were doing had nothing to do with hats?

A hat trick comes from the game of cricket and dates back to the late 1800s.

Hat trick described the feat of a bowler to take three wickets off three successive balls.

This was considered to entitle the bowler to be presented by his club with a new hat or some equivalent gift for this outstanding effort.

While a bowler may not now receive a hat, the achievement is still usually honoured by some trophy.

By 1909, hat trick was being applied to similar achievements in other sports, and today it’s not uncommon to hear the phrase in a non-sport context, a singer who wins three awards, a movie star with three hit movies or a car salesman selling his third car for the day.