I'm starting to lean towards the cricket in a big way after all your help! I DO intend to upgrade to be able to work with larger pieces of boro functional art, but for now i only intend to only work with smaller pieces, get the fine motor skills up a bit and work with the fundamentals before i upgrade to working with larger tubes etc
I'm seriously considering getting a lynx instead, but the fund-age is tight, and will be for a while, at least while my university semester is still in session.
One day soon (hopefully like Jan next year) my next uni grant should come through, when it does i intend to get a 10LPM conc. an annealing kiln, a glass stock and a Pair of torches. depending on what I get now torch wise, i intend to either get a large bench and a hand torch, or an upgrade to my existing torch and another.
You guys have been wicked helpful in this thread so far, thank you all a lot for your support!