This is a couple of weeks old now, but I wanted to give some feedback on how I resolved the alignment issue. To recap, my Meade LX200 10" (Classic but with the George Dudash upgrade) wasn't aligning properly even although I had followed all the familiar steps and checks. The final straw was last night when it selected firstly Capella, and then Rigel as the first choice "easy" method alignment stars. I might have believed that in November, but right now they are below my horizon .
I decided to try the "reset" option, and re-entered all the necessary date (a real pain, got to be extra careful!). Anyway, bingo! it chose Arcturus then Altair for alignment, and the second one, Altair, was almost on the middle of the Telrad centre circle, with minimal final adjustment needed. I've never had it as close as that before and I'm wondering if over a period of time, there might be a drifting of settings which might benefit from the reset option every year or so.
So, problem solved, and I had (eventually) a fruitful hour or so revisiting M5, M27 and a few NGC/IC nebulae.
Thanks once again for all the advice and comments!