Football terms - hat-trick, derby and nutmeg

Posted by Gary Martin on December 01, 2000

In Reply to: Football terms - hat-trick, derby and nutmeg posted by Bob on December 01, 2000

: : Does anyone know the background behind the words hat-trick, derby and nutmeg as used in soccer?

: We had a lively discussion of Derby last December, which you can see by typing Derby in the box above. But Nutmeg has not been discussed... or even defined. It's unknown here in the US... help?

A nutmeg is a football (and there's no way I'm going to call it soccer) term for kicking the ball between an opponent's legs.

Hat trick I'm sure most people know the meaning of. The origin is the early cricketing practise of giving a new hat to a bowler who gets three wickets with three consecutive balls. Incidently, footballers who score three goals get to keep the match ball. Maybe that should be a ball trick?

Gary