Click Instructions - Works fine (buttons disappear)
Click Play - I play
I then die, so it flicks back to the main menu
I click instructions again, and both ‘play’ and ‘instructions’ stay there?

Which project?

It's a private project. I don't want to release it, as it is the full version of ‘red circle’

It's not done yet.

Well debugging it can only be by guesswork then! If you're doing broadcasts to make the sprites show and hide, make sure you're only doing one broadcast.

http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/17160054/

Well, there you go. Could you let me know?

The problem is when you click play, the ball is still touching the green strip at the bottom and its the starts broadcasting GAME OVER.
In the ball script, move to somewhere safe (0:4) when you receive GAME OVER