yeah, this works good. i used to have to do this on my old VW. it was the only way to get em in. i had to figure that out after dropping plugs between the heads and the cooling tins. trying to fish em out was a #$%*.
I learned this one the same hard way as you STL
I dread to think how much finger and knuckle skin that damned volkswagen removed before I figured it out though
If only there had been internet forums back in the 80's
The same trick comes in very handy when working on modern dual camshaft engined cars too