Pete,

If you have code in an overriden Load event on the form it will fire after the ListView's hooked Load event.

If you hook up an event in your forms constructor before the InitializeComponent() call then the forms Load event will fire before the ListViews.

I don't know this is the case but I am guessing there is a dependancy on code in the load event of the form that needs to execute before your hooked event handler.

Regards
Neil