Poised ready, 30 sec to go, bid ready on another tab, I pressed bid, entered the bid and pressed confirm with 15 secs to spare. All appeared fine - but nothing, no bid, no win - gutted.

I am not sure if you have to confirm your confirm lower on the screen, they have changed the layout since I last bid on anything.

sounds like you got sniped.....Its an auto bidding programme that people use that places a bid when there is less than a second to go. Keep an eye out as it may appear back for sale if the winner does not proceed. Thats all I can think of as I won something last week and all I had to do was enter bid and confirm.

Did it actually sell? maybe the seller removed it in the last few seconds because it didn't make what he wanted, thats happened to me before.

This is probably why: http://uk.auctionsniper.com/ it doesn't guarantee that you will win, but does increase your chances.

Sounds like he wasn't outbid, or sni[ped, just his bid didn't appear at all.