My moons ago, I was fortunate to be an Air Cadet 'Staff Cadet' at one of the AEF's. The Boss (and others) told very interesting stories. If I recollect correctly (this was a long time ago), the Boss was the RAF pilot who wrote the Handling Notes. He was subsequently asked to take up a Bulldog and try and replicate the actions of a pilot who got the aircraft into a position where he couldn't regain control and had to bail out, with the loss of the airframe (some job, eh!). He tried numerous times, but couldn't.
Now this might be a huge red herring, but perhaps the loss of control followed a flick, and the RAF were never happy with the unexplained loss, so never cleared it it for flicking?
Just a thought.........perhaps others will clarify/confirm.