So, I'm all sorted now... I successfully used the bios button on the i/o shield, round the back of my rig. I used a USB 3.0 Kingston Datatraveller - which I've used countless times before yesterday without issue, although updating in the usual way through the bios.
One thing I don't think any of the MSI videos/guides make very clear, well, at least not to me, was that you need to have the machine powered off when you start the flashing process. I was connecting the stick before powering on and then pressing the bios button with the system running! Lesson learnt
Thanks all! The MSI util that greats you in Windows after updating was quite useful/insightful.