he used this odd procedure, Mixture OFF, Full throttle and cranked her up, as soon as she spluttered mixture full, and half throttle then stabilised her at 1200rpm..
That "odd" procedure is the standard way of dealing with a flooded engine. If it worked, as you say, then the implication is that you had previously flooded the engine, either by over-priming or over-pumping the throttle before your start attempts.