Mick, I must say that this is very strange behavior.
So, here's what I am going to do sometime today. I am going to create an article like I have over at TP.net with that bottom block set to be the only block shown on that article page. Then I will set all the other panels, other than the bottom panel, to
NOT show on that article. That way, only that block will show on that article. If there is some conflict with another block on the FrontPage, then that block should work fine on the article page with sorttable.js installed and the FrontPage should work fine as well. Then we should be able to sort out what block on the FP is interfering with the block . At least I think that should work.
Jim