I took my old Briggs n Stratton Bunnings mower .. as mentioned in my OP..round to the local mower service guy it needed adjustment, plug, service etc so I picked his brains.
He said that the local consensus of opinion, including the mowing services in the area, is to go Honda. For home use for older farts, as the Honda 21 inch cut models are farking heavy, is to go self propelled. However they are great going forwards but can present problems reversing or doing tight turns.
However as I'm getting the Briggs mower fixed up to tidy up around trees and do a couple of stripes around the kerb (corner block) before doing the long runs with the big mower, the Honda sounds like a good solution.