THERE IS a hidden danger in this booklet for any reader who fancies himself as a bowler. It could leave him feeling somewhat inadequate! It is not just the avalanche of hat-tracks but the instances of nine wickets in nine balls (non-first-class, need it be said?) that perhaps leave a man feeling that unless he performs the hat-track at least twice per season, he can't be worth much.

To balance the effect, while Doug Wright heads the first-class list with seven hat-tricks, some of the best bowlers do not even feature in the list: W. J. O'Reilly for one. And Jimmy Matthews, who took two in one Test, is generally considered to have been a fairly ordinary bowler.

The author has completed a neat hat-trick of his own, for this is the third of his works in the classification of speciality analyses, following booklets on ducks and scores in the nineties. While it would have been more absorbing with more of the first-class stuff and less of the deeds in minor cricket, this is the collection of a meticulous researcher who cares about detail. It is therefore surprising that so many mis-spellings have slipped through, and errors such as Bates, taker of England's First Test hat-trick, being branded a Notts player. He was Yorkshire through and through.

The probable origin of the term is discussed at some length, and it is a telling point that hat-tricks in Tests are 100 times rarer than centuries. J. T. Hearne's remains the highest in quality ( Hill, Gregory, Noble), while Petherick's (on debut for New Zealand) remains the best this century ( Miandad, Wasim Raja and Intikhab, who gallantly `walked'). All the third victims in the 22 Test hat-tricks (including Cork's which is included as a postscript) made ducks, except Salim Malik ( Fleming's at Rawalpindi), who scored the small matter of 237. And how's this for detail: only Spofforth's, Bates's and Fleming's were interrupted by drinks breaks.

Among the facts and figures are such novelties as the Brain/ Townsend hat-trick of stumpings and Pocock's unique 7 in 11 balls (with seven consecutive balls to different batsmen). Another who stands alone is South Africans Bob Crisp, who twice took four wickets in four balls.

David Frith

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