You may have corrosion inside one of the battery cables so you could connect jumper leads from the battery to the motor and give that a test.
Cleaned the battery terminals, gave it a try - no go. Battery shows full charge. Tried Matt's suggestion of the pull start and fired up first pull (So simple, sometimes the simple things are not thought of), motor ran perfectly. Gave it a run to warm it up and then tried the key start - 5 tries and perfect start every time. Now I will check and clean the connections for the solenoid and the starter and see if that makes a difference, if not will get the solenoid and starter checked to make certain they are ok. Thanks to all who offered suggestions and especially Matt for the simple suggestion of the pull start.
Regards to all
Pete
You may have corrosion inside one of the battery cables so you could connect jumper leads from the battery to the motor and give that a test.
If your model utilizes the same style tilt & trim solenoid as the starter solenoid then why not try one of those and see how you go.
DoNotFeedTheTrollsAandBelligerent