Lives in Cricket No 2 - Johnny Briggs

Chapter Eight A Test hat-trick ‘Briggs got most of his wickets with his leg breaks, especially when the ground was soft; but on good fast wickets I found the ball that gave me most trouble was the one he pitched on or just outside off stump and came in with his arm.’ W.G.Grace It is not clear how ‘hat-trick’ came into the cricketing vocabulary, but it is believed it was first used after a match at Sheffield’s Hyde Park ground in 1858 when an All-England team took on a Hallam XI. During the game, Heathfield Stephenson, of the All-England XI, took three wickets in successive balls. As was customary at the time for rewarding outstanding sporting feats, a collection was made and the proceeds were used to buy a hat, which was duly presented to Stephenson. Thus the hat-trick was born. Esher-born Stephenson was a Surrey stalwart between 1853 and 1871, scoring more than 7,000 runs and taking in excess of 300 wickets. After his retirement, he umpired in one Test – against Australia on his home ground at the age of 47, nine years after his last match for Surrey and 32 years after his hat-trick achievement. Whatever the origin of the term hat-trick, they are rare birds in Test cricket. At the time of writing, the feat had been achieved on 36 occasions since the first Test match in 1877. The first bowler to have his name inscribed on the Test match hat-trick roll of honour was Australia’s Fred ‘The Demon’ Spofforth who took three-in-three against England at Melbourne on 2 January, 1879, while the most recent was Indian fast bowler Irfan Pathan on 29 January, 2006 against Pakistan in Karachi in the 1,783rd Test match on record. Spofforth had a remarkable match, his hat-trick apart, 52 Briggs, in addition to his famous hat-trick at Sydney in 1892, achieved ‘three-in- three’ for North v South at Scarborough in the previous year. Briggs’ victims were Billy Murdoch, Edward Hadow and J.J.Ferris.