OK, we have a solution
My /tmp file system was mounted with the noexec option, this is recommended (by some) for security purposes as rootkits can be installed through the tmp files. The vmware installer requires to be executable from /tmp, I don't know if this is good or bad practice with Linux but it stopped my system installing, so hopefully it would have the same effect on rootkit installers.
I REMed out the line in /etc/fstab that mounts the /tmp with the noexec,nosuid settings and retried the install using
gksudo bash VMware-Player-3.1.5-491717.x86_64.bundle
and it installed perfectly, I have run one of my VMs and updated VMtools, I intend to revert to the original /etc/fstab when I next reboot
