If you go with the greenly dies, invest in an cordless impact driver (I have the Milwaukee 18v brushless) Pops a perfect d-shaped hole.
Thank you for the wonderful advice, I regularly punch 24mm and 22mm round holes at work, and find it hard work with just an adjustable spanner.
So following your suggestion, I ordered a De Walt cordless impact driver (a brushed one, as it's cheaper, and it's not going to get a lot of use), and a De Walt one because we already have a couple of De Walt cordless tools, and this means all three use the same batteries. I ordered it complete with case, charger, and two batteries as it was only £30 dearer than the bare tool, and you can't have too many batteries.
Anyway, it's arrived, I got some adaptors and a suitable socket - just tried it, and it's absolutely incredible. Takes a couple of seconds, and no effort required at all.
So anyone else using manual hole punches, take gophert's advice and buy a cordless impact driver.