Break through?

I'm always wary of these false dawns, and this could well be another one, but tonight I did seem to crack the Leg Break with the big flick over 22 yards. I spent an hour of solid bowling initially using the two techniques that I bowl my leg breaks with and then I noticed that there was something relaxed about the way I was bowling and I've noticed that our best Wrist Spinners at Grays and Chadwell CC - Neil Samwell (Chinaman) and Ross Fullbrook (Leg Spinner) have a relaxed delivery that loops and drops. So feeling like I was bowling well I decided to try and get the ball down the 22 yards with the big flick and I did and it turned big.

Over the following half an hour I kept at and was having about 30% success rate with it where it was landing on a good line and length and turning big. The rest of the time it was massively wayward or coming out as a Wrong Un or a Top spinner which is promising as it suggests that there only has to be a slight deviation in the wrist position and it'll go the other way?

I noticed too that it seems to help if I throw the ball up in the same manner a few times as I stand there contemplating what I'm about to do and then go into the delivery having just flicked it in that manner whilst standing. I've also noticed that the grip is very different from my other deliveries. With this delivery at this stage the 2 up fingers do virtually nothing, they're relaxed and hardly touch the ball. The thumb is key because it because it holds the ball in the hand up against the third finger and plays a small part in initially rotating the ball into the 3rd finger so that the finger and wrist flick the ball out of the hand in a very effective and relaxed action that puts masses of revs on the ball. The ball coming off the finger is flicked so well that it makes a click sound not unlike the Flippers click.

When it comes out right it's a flighty ball that dips and then spins off the wicket exceptionally well. One of the things I've noticed is that as you release the ball my hand assumes the same aspect of Peter Philpotts hand in some of the images in his book page 19, 63, e.g. the thumb ends up tucked into the closed hand.

I'm not claiming I've cracked it because when I have these days when it seems as though I have finally sussed the big turning dipping leg break it always turns out that I can't repeat the same the following day. If I am able to tomorrow I might be able to to say that I have made a big leap forward and then all I'll have to do is get the consistency with my line and length.