Yep, I double checked that, I dont have another in the drawers but it does meter out correctly.
I replaced it with a 100k which seemed to make the circuit latch bewteen cycles but not allways un-latch as the osc o/p isnt able to drive against it.
I tried bc547, and 557's and 2n3904/2n3906's, the latter sort of work, the former current limits but doesnt latch and reset between cycles, I checked the pinouts, ok.
Seems that the circuit is particular, or I'm doing something mad.