Moritz and Jeroen, Thank you both.
I tried both your ideas but the system is set to prevent the time being changed as you thought. Another plea to the VPS controllers and it was corrected. So the lesson there is presume it is the VPS set-up first and foremost.
You both should know that the concise and clear advice like yours is what this list needs rather than mysterious jargon and code. Anyone finding the instructions you gave would also see the complete explanation with them.
I don't know how but it would be good to facilitate the search for or extract such advice for keen newboys. The subject line isn't always the best label as I demonstrated.
Robert