OK - have managed a sucessful cable sync in the office. After I set up the partnership the phone asked "Exchange server ********** must enforce security policies on your device to continue sync. Do you wish to cntiunue?" - I clicked yes and then it asked me to set a password and following that everything sync'd over correctly.
It seems this would only work when connected locally as last night I couldnt do this remotely.
Now I am back to the issue of getting active sync/push working over GPRS/3G rather than WAP!
Simon