Flipper Variation No 5 Clarrie Grimmetts 'Mystery Ball'

This is the delivery that Clarrie Grimmett considered to be 'The Flipper'. Spun in towards yourself using the classic finger and thumb flick technique which imparts Top-Spin. Lost in history and claimed by some as being impossible to bowl Bradman commented that this ball speeds up on impact with the wicket. For more details see http://spinbowling-flipper.blogspot.com/

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• Clarrie
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• legspin
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[77Fortran]

I was wondering do you have some insights into the technique of the English bowler S.F.Barnes? He seems as far as I can tell to be someone who bowled at a medium pace but could still spin the ball enough to get a lot of drift and effective turn off the pitch. By his stupendous success with this he seems like a real anomaly and I wonder if he had some unusual physiological thing in his favour!

[someblokecalleddave1]

@77Fortran I've read a couple of books that mention Barnes. Amol Rajans book 'The Twirlymen' highlights the points that you've made and as you've said there's not been a modern equivalent, I suppose the closest thing we've got at the minute is Afridi. I've never seen anyone who I'd describe as fast in that way or come across anyone who's considered trying it. I think I'd try it if I was 20-30 years younger!

[shutuprafa]

So I think I've got this but I have to make sure I only keep two fingers on it. I usually keep three or four fingers for my normal flipper. I use the two finger grip when bowling the off-spinning flipper and the grimmett ball. Using just two results in more of a squeezing action. 3-4 fingers will allow the ball to come from under the thumb, so it works well for off cutters, backspinners, leg cutters, and gippers. If you have the wrists of saqlain, the 2 finger grip can produce a doosra I imagine

[someblokecalleddave1]

@shutuprafa I've not used it for a long time, but I'm with you on the two fingered approach and the other attribute you need is the wrist mobility. When learning all these I noticed that if you bowl using the flipper click technique ( I'm beginning to realise has much in common with the finger spinners technique) and bowl it with the back of the hand facing the batsman and the wrist cocked backwards it produces a Leg Break - but you'd need Muralis arm and shoulder dexterity I reckon.

[shutuprafa]

@someblokecalleddave1 I've been giving some thought to the different styles of legspin bowling. Isn't it interesting how Pakistani leggies (Mushtaq, Qadir, Afridi) use a lot of drift and marginal turn and bounce, Indian leggies (Kumble, Chandra, a few minor ones) use a lot of bounce and marginal turn and drift, and Aussie leggies (Warne, Macgill, Grimmett, O'Reilly) use a lot of turn and marginal bounce and drift? The actions are also very distinct (higharm v. roundarm, etc)

[someblokecalleddave1]

@shutuprafa You're getting too technical for me now Shutuprafa! I've very little knowledge of many of the bowlers you mention, but it's interesting in what you're saying about the Pakistani bowlers & drift. Drift is something I'm interested in at the moment, but there's very little footage of Qadir and Mustaq to have a look at and see what you mean, I'll go and have a look at them now. I always thought that Warne was well known for his ability to get the ball to drift?

[77Fortran]

@someblokecalleddave1 Thank you for the reply! Yes, I hope we see something like that again and it's not just a matter of pitches being too benign nowadays to do really well bowling like that. There's a footage of the New Zealander Simon Doull bowling Nasser Hussain on youtube which is maybe the kind of ball that Barnes was bowling.

[shutuprafa]

@someblokecalleddave1 Take a look at the blewett lbw vid on robelinda2's channel. Mushtaq whips his fingers between over the side of the ball and over the top of the ball. It drifts in with mild break from leg. The axis on which the ball is spinning is at an angle between pointing toward the sky (flying saucer) and pointing toward the batsman (leg-break). I've asked Rob to upload some Qadir highlights. Warne got late drift from lots of flight (think magnus effect when the ball moves vertically )

[someblokecalleddave1]

@WhatElseExceptNature Yeah I'm everywhere, I write a lot about this stuff, I've got two big blogs one of which I'm working on a massive update on. Ideally I'd like to update these videos but I'm waiting on two slo mo cameras so I can film stuff from two angles, but that's likely to be a project for next year now.

[WhatElseExceptNature]

@someblokecalleddave1 Haha you are an interesting guy! And oh I was looking up tips for flight and dip on google and I read an article and I saw a comment by you on it. Site is htt ://ww.pitchvision. com/spin-bowling-flight-and-gu­ile. And its recent as well! What a coincident. I also am messaging you for some things.