thanks @Skye - much appreciated - please let me know if this does go into development. Our store is www.stillspirit.com, just launched this week and still lots of optimisation to do.

yes, but I want this saved as default so I don't need to do it every time I load the product page...

Thanks Nadia, but the problem I am having is on the Products page in the back end, not the presentation of products on the front end.  Can the sort be set as default on the Products page in the back end?

Hi guys Is there a way to set a 'default' sort on the Products page in admin, so that we can sort by 'created' and 'newest first' all the time, without having to manually select this sort each time the page is loaded? thanks