Why a ‘yorker’ is called so?

Why a ‘yorker’ is called so?

Yorker is straight ball that passes underneath the striker’s bat, especially by pitching right up to, or just inside the popping crease. It is usually meant to trick the batsman, who may misjudge the ball’s length and play it either as a half volley or full toss. Thus it is possible for a batsman to be yorked, even if his is a few yards out of his ground, so long as, in failing to read the ball’s length correctly, he allows it to pass underneath the bat.




A simple explanation of the origin of this type of delivery is that it originated in Yorkshire. But a more convincing explanation lies in the meaning of ‘york’. In the slang or colloquial usage, ‘to york’ or ‘put Yorkshire’ on someone meant to ‘trick’, cheat or ‘over-reach a person’ or ‘to deceive a person’. Some connection seems to lie in the meaning of ‘yarker’ or ‘yerker’ which according to the English Dialect Dictionary is ‘something that jerks or wrenches’. So perhaps it could denote a ball that goes under the bat and wrenches the stumps out of the ground. Thus, while there is no certainty of the origin, we can safely conclude that the term suggests the kind of trickery that is necessary for a successful Yorker.