Follow up to previous posting

Hat trick

Following my latest little posting concerning our super novelist, David Hodges, several readers wanted to know about the derivation of 'hat trick'. Well, in cricket, the term seems to have been coined when a bowler took three wickets in successive deliveries and received a new hat provided by his club.

The term was seen in print for the first time in 1878, describing Heathfield Harman Stephenson's cricketing prowess in 1858. Now, of course, we use the term when describing a trio of achievements repeated three times consecutively.