Henry Crocombe revealed he had never taken a hat-trick at any level before achieving the feat twice in eight days over the past two Rothesay County Championship rounds.
The Sussex seamer became just the seventh player in the whole history of first-class cricket – and the second man this century – to take hat-tricks in successive games.
Crocombe’s first hat-trick came against Somerset as he raced through the tail before helping the south-coast county to an important win over Essex to keep them firmly in the title race with three rounds to play.
“I think getting a hat-trick in general is pretty mental,” said Crocombe. “I've never done it before in anything, at any cricket at any level. And so to go and do it again, I don't really know what to think, to be honest!
“I think only when I came off and everyone started talking about records and all sorts of stuff, I realised how rare it actually is.”
It capped a memorable week for the uncapped 24-year-old who was called into England’s squad for the upcoming Metro Bank ODI Series against Sri Lanka.
His efforts also earned him back-to-back man-of-the-match performances in the Cricket Media Club’s Rothesay County Championship Player of the Year award. The six votes moved him up to equal fourth on the leaderboard behind leader Matthew Potts.
Crocombe shifted the momentum of the match against Essex with five wickets in 14 balls to showcase his match-winning abilities.
He removed Charlie Allison for 56 and then returned to rip through the Essex lower order. Simon Harmer and Zaman Akhter were trapped lbw from his first two deliveries of a new over before Shane Snater was bowled by the third. He subsequently castled Jamie Porter to complete figures of 5-39.
On his mindset ahead of his hat-trick ball against Essex, he said: “I knew what ball I was going to bowl the whole time. If I nail that, it's going to be a tough ball to play for anyone, especially the batter coming in, they're going to be a bit nervous as well.
“I knew exactly what I wanted to do. The fact that it happened last week and then everyone obviously, as soon as I got the second one, it's all anyone could talk about. I was probably more nervous then, but it worked out pretty well.”
Sussex eventually completed the victory, with James Coles' all-round contribution of 94 runs and seven wickets securing victory by 47 runs, despite Matt Critchley's brilliant rearguard 96.
Crocombe’s achievement comes as part of a breakthrough summer. He has now taken the fourth-most wickets in Division One this season with 40 – 16 more than Sussex’s next highest – at 23.52, including career-best match figures of 9-69 against Leicestershire. He was drafted in to the England's squad for their second Test against New Zealand as injury cover for Sussex teammate Ollie Robinson and now has that call-up into the ODI squad.
“I don't know whether you ever feel like you're ready until you've done it,” said Crocombe on his potential upcoming international debut. “If you asked me six months ago, I never would've thought I'd be in this situation. It has all happened so quickly. But there's never been a time in my career where I've ever felt more ready for the situation. If I do get a chance to play, I definitely think that I'm at the best point in my career to give it a good go.”
He has been a Sussex player since Under-12 level and made his first-class debut against Gloucestershire in the 2020 Bob Willis Trophy, aged just 18. In 2024, he received his first England Lions call-up for the winter tour of South Africa and was also included for the visit of India last summer. In July this year, Sussex announced that he would leave at the end of the season to join Surrey, who will be acquiring one of the country’s brightest prospects. Across his career, he has 125 first-class wickets from 51 appearances.
With three rounds to play, Durham seamer Potts tops the leaderboard with 17 votes after he picked up to more votes in his side’s win over Northamptonshire, who were bowled out for 50 in the fourth innings after man-of-the-match Callum Parkinson took 6-20.
Craig Overton also earned two votes in Somerset’s innings win over Glamorgan to move them four points clear at the top of the Division One table. Overton sits second on the Cricket media Club leaderboard on 12 votes.
The top-10 players on the leaderboard at the end of the season will be eligible to win the prestigious Cricket Media Club’s Rothesay County Championship Player of the Year.
The CMC’s membership will each vote on their preferred winner from the top-10 to decide the award, which was won by Nottinghamshire skipper Haseeb Hameed last season.
Statistician Andrew Samson provided this list:
| Player | Team | Matches/Opponents | Season |
| George Freeman | Yorkshire | v Surrey (The Oval) & Middlesex (Lord's) | 1868 |
| Joginder Rao | Services | v Jammu & Kashmir (Delhi) & Northern Punjab (Amritsar) | 1963–64 |
| Mike Procter | Gloucestershire | v Leicestershire (Bristol) & Yorkshire (Harrogate) | 1979 |
| Dean Headley | Kent | v Hampshire (Southampton) & Derbyshire (Derby) | 1996 |
| Wasim Akram | Pakistan | v Sri Lanka (Lahore) & Sri Lanka (Dhaka) | 1998–99 |
| Deepak Dhapola | Uttarakhand | v Puducherry (Puducherry) & Delhi (Delhi) | 2023–24 |
| Henry Crocombe | Sussex | v Somerset (Hove) & Essex (Chelmsford) | 2026 |
Leaderboard
17: Matthew Potts (Durham)
12: Craig Overton (Somerset)
11: Matt Milnes (Kent)
9: Tom Abell (Somerset), Henry Crocombe (Sussex).
8: Kyle Abbott (Hampshire), Ethan Bamber (Warwickshire), David Bedingham (Durham), James Bracey (Gloucestershire), Leus du Plooy (Middlesex), Jake Lehmann (Hampshire), Ben Raine (Durham), Olly Stone (Nottinghamshire).
7: Ben Aitchison (Derbyshire), Matt Critchley (Essex), George Hill (Yorkshire), James Rew (Somerset), Matthew Waite (Worcestershire).
6: Ben Sanderson (Northamptonshire), Kiran Carlson (Glamorgan), Mason Crane (Glamorgan), Brett D’Oliveira (Worcestershire), Emilio Gay (Durham), Dan Lategan (Worcestershire), Liam Patterson-White (Nottinghamshire), Thomas Rew (Somerset), Naavya Sharme (Middlesex).
Round 12 votes
Division One
Essex v Sussex: 3 – Henry Crocombe (Sussex), 2 – James Coles (Sussex), 1 – Matt Critchley (Essex).
Surrey v Yorkshire: 3 – Matthew Fisher (Surrey), 2 – Josh Blake (Surrey), 1 – George Hill (Yorkshire).
Somerset v Glamorgan: 3 – Tom Lammonby (Somerset), 2 – Craig Overton (Somerset), 1 – Jack Leach (Somerset).
Hampshire v Warwickshire: 3 – Rob Yates (Warwickshire), 2 – Manav Suthar (Warwickshire), 1 – Olly Hannon-Dalby (Warwickshire).
Nottinghamshire v Leicestershire: 3 – Jack Haynes (Nottinghamshire), 2 – Dillon Pennington (Nottinghamshire), 1 – Josh Hull (Leicestershire).
Division Two
Gloucestershire v Derbyshire: 3 – James Bracey (Gloucestershire), 2 – Ollie Price (Gloucestershire), 1 – Sai Kishore (Gloucestershire).
Northamptonshire v Durham: 3 – Callum Parkinson (Durham), 2 – Matthew Potts (Durham), 1 – David Bedingham (Durham).
Kent v Worcestershire: 3 – Sam Northeast (Kent), 2 – Brett D’Oliveira (Worcestershire), 1 – Keith Dudgeon (Kent).
Middlesex v Lancashire: 3 – Tom Helm (Middlesex), 2 – Luke Hollman (Middlesex), Matty Hurst (Lancashire).