Lay a pencil on the chart , slide to the nearest VOR rose and estimate it, was his acceptable method, too much head down otherwise!
Sounds eminently sensible. I recall testing a student who was a serving RN helicopter pilot. On the practice diversion he produced more and more strange devices from his bag for such a simple task (our checklist had a laminated back with a 1/2 mill distance scale along one edge - draw line with chinagraph on map, look out, measure distance and note on back of checklist, parallel the track to a VOR rose and draw a line to the radial scale, look out, read off track and note on back of checklist, use MDR wind and simple arithmetic to calculate heading and time to diversion). He did OK, but afterwards I told him that I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd produced a parallel rule and brass dividers from his treasure trove of matelots' devices!