On Saturday, 11 April 2015 11:00:46 UTC+1, Another John wrote:
OP here -- thanks to all, in particular to Road Hog: yes, if I'd had
your post _before_ the operation then all would have been well!

No, not put off doing it again: keen to have another go, better prepared
as I now am!

The hire company should provide a copy of the basic operating
instructions with the machine -- they themselves knew nothing about
operating it. And it cost 62 quid plus VAT for the day!

Thanks again
John

Wish I had read this before. I reckon I learnt most of it by practice today, but it took a few punishing hours of wrestling with it before the "lean on the rear" approach became obvious, though even then there's still a fair bit of humping the thing about to do.