He gripped the ball differently from most wrist spinners, using his thumb and first two fingers, and would attempt any kind of unorthodox delivery if he thought it might be effective. To deceive the batsman he varied the position from which he bowled and the height of his arm, and occasionally bowled deliberate full tosses or long hops to surprise them. Fender hoped that, in his eagerness to score from an apparently innocuous ball, the batsman would mis-hit, a tactic he would often try when the batsman was playing defensively. Fender's love of experimentation and his surprise variations made him difficult for batsmen to face, but produced inconsistent results and he sometimes conceded many runs. His "Wisden" obituary suggests that Fender would have been better employed as a "fourth or fifth bowler in a strong bowling side", but Surrey's weakness in bowling meant that he had to do far more work than was ideal for his style and approach. Despite his experimentation, critics regarded him as a reliable bowler using his primary method, and "The Times" described him as "subtle in flight and with artful variations".