Dip and Drift or was that swing?

After two weeks of bowling pies I guessed the reason may have been because I wasn't putting in the hours in between the Thursday net sessions, so last weekend I went out and chucked the ball around and have done so over the week in the evenings outside the house and anywhere I could. At the weekend I also made a little video demonstrating the Clarrie Grimmett flipper and the Shane Warne version which was originally mastered in that guise by Richie Benuad I think? But making the video and just letting the ball drop and observing how much backspin both variations produced suggested that the Grimmett version was a better back-spinning ball than the Warne/Benuad type. Having made the observation I then threw a few over a short distance outside the house and the outcome didn't look that different/special. So I left it at that and only flicked them from hand to hand indoors over the following days.

Tonight coming home it was warm and sunny and I came home via the field and thought it was ideal to try out the Top Spinners and Flippers that I was going to bowl tonight and work on my feeble Leg Breaks. So with a couple of stumps and a bag of 16 balls I went over and threw about 120 balls. Primarily I bowled my piddly little leg breaks, some of them were okay, there's some subtle changes that can be made that produce a big bounce with some spin and others that skid in low but turn well, but for the moment I can't differentiate what it is that creates the difference in order that I can do it again and again consistently. But a key part of it as reported again and again on this blog is the concious effort to turn the wrist slightly inwards as with the Big Leg break and then to push the ball forward and then sometimes the 3rd finger just seems to stick and the ball spins.

I then bowled the Top Spinners and got them to go straight and dip. This then caused them to bounce up high even on a soggy wet field with hard non bouncy balls. I'm now wondering if I've always had the ability to bowl dipping Top Spinners but have simply not been aware of it as a characteristic of my bowling? I then thought let's try the Clarrie Grimmett Flipper and gave that a go. The first ball was unbelievable - right on target but then it swerved initially away from the stumps and then back into them - see diagram. Anything that was aimed at the Leg side stump just went for a wide, I've never bowled anything like it in my life! The ball seemed to be leaving my hands heading for he off stump or slightly wide of it and ended up on the stumps or wide of the stumps down the legside and it wasn't a fluke - I did it again and again! So if I'm to bowl this ball I need to learn where to aim it as the deviation is massive!

So massively enthused by this I went to the net session with my club and had an exceptionally good night bowling mainly Top Spinners and Flippers of both types and I had the all of the batsmen in trouble, bowling top spinners at varying lengths inter-mixed with straight non-swerving flippers that skidded in low or big swerving flippers that skidded in low. Reading Philpotts book he describes Richie Benuads Flipper as having the very same properties as this Grimmett Flipper, so it looks like I've got a new variation to play with and explore, so running up to the season and the battle with my mate The wizard who bowls an exceptionally good turning Leg Break it looks like I may have another aspect to my bowling that may give me the edge?