Nelson

222 is known as a 'double nelson', 333 as a 'triple nelson', and so on (with increasingly long odds against the scores in question ever being reached).

Why is a score of 111 known as a Nelson?

Wikipedia gives a suitably decorous explanation from the 1939 film Goodbye, Mr Chips, in which a schoolboy explains that Admiral Nelson had "One arm, one eye, one destiny".

A popular myth has evolved, however, according to which the third thing that the Admiral had just one of was something else entirely.

Wikipedia also quotes two relatively contemporary experts, who clearly would rather subscribe to the popular version. The legendary Bill Frindall, it relates, once referred to a Nelson as "one eye, one arm and one etcetera"; while the equally legendary cricketer and umpire David Shepherd claimed that the reference was to "One arm, one eye and one lump of sugar in his tea."

During his days as an umpire, the portly Shepherd would delight crowds by performing a little skip after each delivery, whenever the score was on 111. This was in homage to a superstition that the evil effects of the score would be alleviated if you remove both feet from the ground. (Often – presumably when he felt that a skip was too much effort – he would just raise one leg).

In Australian cricket, the equivalent score is 87 – known as "the Devil's number". This is often thought to be because it's thirteen short of 100, but (again according to Wikipedia), it came about because on one occasion when Ian Johnson (a contemporary of Don Bradman, who won 45 Test caps) was dismissed for 87, Keith Miller (a cricketer of a slightly later era) remarked "I once saw Bradman dismissed for 87". Wikipedia goes on to explain that on the occasion that Miller was referring to, Bradman's score was in fact 89, but due to an error by the scorers it was recorded as 87.

I don't know about anyone else, but can't help feeling that this is only part of the story – there must be a bit more to it.