By BOAC:
My reading of the reaction is - nothing else is working, so I need rudder, and apart from the danger of inducing a spin, there is some evidence it may have helped limit the roll?
Might be true but in any case: You never touch the rudder (in any aircraft) to avoid spin, you use the rudder to recover from spin.
I hope you have also some aerobatic license and/or experience in small, light and fast aerobatics-capable planes. Then you remember that you only use the rudder to put an aircraft into spin. The correct procedure to avoid stall is to push the aircraft and later to increase thrust/power. I'm also experienced in military aviation and I have never heard of rudders helping there (but military aviation is a wide field), so I really don't know why these guys always play around with the pedals all the time, might look fancy (when all works out).
Rudders are basically just there for a crosswind landing and OEI handling (engine failure). Nothing else. Leave them - period.
Dani