Chinaman

A cricket term dates from c.1933. A Chinaman is a ball, bowled by a left-arm spinner that spins from off to leg to a right-handed batsman. In other words, it is the left-arm spinner’s off-break. So-called after Edgar Ellis Achong (1904-1986) a West Indian test player of Chinese origin. In the Old Trafford Test at Manchester in 1933, he had Walter Robbins stumped by such a delivery. Newspapers reported that Robbins had been deceived by a Chinaman, referring to the West Indian cricketer’s racial origins, and the name stuck. Another story is that Walter Robbins himself was heard to remark in the changing room, “Fancy getting out to a bloody Chinaman!”