Tumbler Numbers - Used to work now doesn't

[DrJaymz]

I created a tumbler routine like the old tumblers you'd see on a Gas pump or car dashboard.
It works by working out where the digit we want is in the "window" then adding the digit before and after. Its all drawn on a sprite which is then pushed to the display.

This used to look cool but now no longer works. I think the problem is that the way in which text that is printed out of bounds is handled. The previous and next digits may be partially or completely obscured. This didn't used to matter.

I found the function setTextWrap and disabled it for x and y - doesn't make any difference.
For the following the sprite is 55x55 and I think digits are 0 to 99. What it should do is show 10,20,30,40 passing by.

If you can think of a better way with clipping or scrolling rectangles I'm happy to change it.

(ignore the colours and casting to floats etc I was trying to work out what was happening, the GREEN text works as exected, the other two appear over the top in the centre)

void printTens(float digit, int x)
{
  digits.fillSprite(TFT_BLACK);
  digits.setTextDatum(ML_DATUM);
  digits.setFreeFont(&FreeSansBold12pt7b);
  digits.setTextWrap(false,false);

  digit += 0.5;

  float pixel_fraction = (float)digits.height() / 10;
  float vLocation;
  int figure = (int)digit;

  if (figure == 10)
    figure = 0;

  sprintf(strBuff, "%01d0", figure);
  vLocation = (10.0 * (digit - int(digit))) * pixel_fraction;
  Serial.printf("GVLOC: %0.1f %i\n",vLocation, digits.height());
  digits.setTextColor(TFT_GREEN);
  digits.drawString(strBuff, 0, vLocation, 1);

  figure++;
  if (figure == 10)
    figure = 0;

  sprintf(strBuff, "%01d0", figure);
  vLocation = ((10.0 * (digit - int(digit))) * pixel_fraction) - (float)digits.height();
  Serial.printf("YVLOC: %0.1f %i\n",vLocation, digits.height());
  digits.setTextColor(TFT_YELLOW);
  digits.drawString(strBuff, 0, vLocation, 1);

  figure = (int)digit;
  figure--;

  sprintf(strBuff, "%01d0", figure);
  vLocation = ((10.0 * (digit - int(digit))) * pixel_fraction) + (float)digits.height();
    Serial.printf("CVLOC: %0.1f %i\n",vLocation, digits.height());
  digits.setTextColor(TFT_CYAN);
  digits.drawString(strBuff, 0, vLocation, 1);

  digits.pushSprite(x, PANEL_MIDY);
}

[DrJaymz]

I see these lines have appeared. I commented out the checks on the Y coordinate but there must be more than that.
I would have thought partially obscured text was fairly commonly used. (but willing to conceed there is a better way).