i remember a discussion abart it years ago, canr remember the outcome , so i could be wrong, nowt new there. we need a footy purists view
A hat-trick occurs in association football when a player scores three goals (not necessarily consecutive) in a single game, whereas scoring two goals constitutes a brace.
Cricket: Hat-trick is 3 wickets in 3 successive balls, even if there's an over, an innings, or even a close season in-between. An ex playing colleague of mine once took the 3rd wicket of a hat-trick with his first ball in a completely new season, after taking wickets with his last 2 balls of the previous season. After that interesting fact, I just have to complain that I can't watch the highlights as Keith Hill has obviously blocked them from being transmitted here in Germany.
Some regard a "true", or "perfect" hat-trick as one where the player scores with both feet and their head in the same match (or less commonly by a header, leg shot, and penalty or free kick), though this is obviously very rare. The most common definition of a "true" hat-trick is where a player scores three goals in the same half of the match. Yet another definition, known in Germany, Belgium and Norway, is that the player scores three goals in the same net without anyone else scoring between the player's first and third goal, a "flawless" hat-trick.
