Thanks for the answers. I had buffering set off( single user, single WS app, no contention issues), and according to the help file, the commit happens when navigating away from the record. The line following the GATHER MEMVAR was
IF !EOF()
skip 1 etc..
It was'nt. Out of sheer desperation, I tried adding =TABLEUPDATE(.T.) and it worked. This is the first time I have had to explicitly call a commit after a GATHER command. I guess it only happens when the nav buttons are used, not when in code.