The most memorable hat trick performance in Test history was that of Australia's Thomas Matthews against South Africa in the Old Trafford Test (May 1912) when he created a unique record by achieving a hat-trick in each innings of the same Test - and that too on the same day, and without the help of any fielders, clean-bowling two victims, having two more trapped lbw, and catching two off his own bowling.
The only other bowler to have two hat-tricks to his credit is Australia's Hugh Trumble, who performed it both times against England at the same venue (Melbourne) but in two separate rubbers in January 1902 and March 1904. The latter occasion happened to be his last Test.
The only other bowler to perform the hat-trick on his last appearance was South Africa's Geoff Griffen at Lord's in June 1960 against England when he was later no-balled 11 times by umpire Frank Lee for throwing. Griffen played no further Test cricket.
Only four bowlers in Test history performed hat-tricks on their Test debut. England's Maurice Allom achieved the feat in 1929-30 against New Zealand at Christchurch, Peter Pathrick of New Zealand did it against Pakistan at Lahore in 1976-77 while Aussies pace bowler Damien Fleming did it against Pakistan at Rawalpindi in 1994-95. Dominic Cork achieved the feat in 1995 against West Indies at Manchester. Cork struck with the fourth, fifth and sixth ball of day's first over to all but clinch the fourth Test for England.
The other twelve bowlers, apart from the seven above, who have a hat-trick to their credit in their Test career, are listed below chronologically:
January 1883 (over a hundred years ago): England's Willie Bates not only performed the hat-trick v Australia at Melbourne, but he slammed 55 runs (the second highest scorer on either side in the match) and went on to take seven wickets in each innings for a match haul of 14 for 102!
February 1892: England's Johnny Briggs v Australia at Sydney.
February 1896: England's George Lohmann v South Africa at Port Elizabeth. He opened the innings bagging 'a pair' but claimed a hat-trick to end the Test in two days with a second innings analysis of 9.4 overs, 5 maidens, 8 wickets, for 7 runs and a match aggregate of 15 for 45.
June 1899: England's John Thomas Hearne v Australia at Headingley.
December 1938: England's Tom Goddard v South Africa at Johannesburg.
July 1957: England's Peter Loader v West Indies at Headingley.
January 1958: Australia's slow left-arm bowler Lindsay Kline v South Africa at Cape Town.
March 1959: The West Indies 'Pace King', Wesley Hall dismissed Mushtaq Mohammad, Fazal Mahmood and Nasim-ul-Ghani of Pakistan at Bagh-e-Jinnah, Lahore.
January 1961: The West Indies off-spin maestro Lance Gibbs dismissed Ken Mackay, Wally Grout and Frank Misson of Australia at Adelaide.
November 1988: West Indies paceman Courtney Walsh performed the hat-trick by dismissing Tony Dodemaide to end the Australian first innings and then got rid of Mike Velletta and Graeme Wood with his first two deliveries in the second innings.
December 1988: The most unusual hat-trick in Test annals took place when Australia's Merv Hughes captured three wickets with three successive deliveries in three different overs spread and over more than 24 hours.
On December 3, about 45 minutes before tea on the second day of the Perth Test, Hughes dismissed Curtly Ambrose with the last ball of his 36 over. It was the eighth wicket to fall.
Then after Tim May had Gus Logie caught, the ninth wicket to fall, Hughes got rid of Patrick Patterson with the first ball of his 37 over to end the West Indies first innings.
The next day, just a few minutes before 'stumps' when West Indies commenced their second innings, Hughes trapped Gordon Greenidge with his very first ball to complete an amazing and unprecedented Test hat-trick.
December 1994: Australian Shane Warne dismissed Philip De Freitas, Darren Gough and Devon Malcolm of England at Melbourne.
An interesting point is that Johnny Briggs and Lindsay Kline are the only left-arm bowlers to perform a Test hat-trick in this elite circle of nine Englishmen, seven Australian, three West Indians, a South African and a New Zealander who have achieved this feat. No Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan or Zimbabwean has yet performed a hat-trick in a Test match. Petherick has the most expensive innings analysis of somebody doing the hat-trick (3 for 103). Largest total to include a hat-trick is 537 by Pakistan at Rawalpindi, 1994 95. Least number of career Test wickets for a bowler doing a hat-trick is 8 by Griffin.