Thanks but that is now doing:

,Thu Jun 25 13:04:59 BST 2009count: 3

Where 'count 3' should have four words infront of it!

I've tried changing the order of sed "s/$/,$(date)/" around but that doesn't seem to help.

edit: doesnt seem to be writing the date when its done as a cronjob. Just has $(date),monkey