A: You finally got a license plate from the lucky draw. Congratulations!

    B: Well, third time lucky as they say.

    Note: This idiom means “After no success the first two times, the third try is a lucky one.” It is also used as a good luck charm — spoken just before trying something for the third time. Some say it alludes to the belief that, under English law, anyone who survived three attempts at hanging would be set free. But it seems more likely just a folk belief that, having had setbacks, we ought to persevere and not give up. This is enshrined in the phrase “try, try and try again.” Three seems to be the right number of times to try. Two isn’t enough but four is too many. The same idea is expressed in the American expression “third time’s a charm.”