Ok, no answer, however I have discovered that there is an "Email Sent" confirmation when a reply is made to a comment on posts at http://b2evolution.net/

So..what should I be checking?

In your skin, you've probably missed this bit of code :-

<div class="bPosts">
<!-- =================================== START OF MAIN AREA =================================== -->
<?php
	// ------------------------- MESSAGES GENERATED FROM ACTIONS -------------------------
	$Messages->disp( );
	// --------------------------------- END OF MESSAGES ---------------------------------
?>
<?php
	// ------------------------- TITLE FOR THE CURRENT REQUEST -------------------------
	request_title( '<h2 class="details">', '</h2>' );
	// ------------------------------ END OF REQUEST TITLE -----------------------------
?>

¥

Thanks "guru"

I was a tad too enthusiastic in deleting what I was calling clutter :)
Returned the message display section but still couldn't get the thing to work without a full refresh until I discovered I had also deleted ...

$Item->msgform_link( $Blog->get('msgformurl') );
			echo ', ';

All fixed.

Alls well that ends well ;)

¥