I'm sticking with the sumproduct as I found it quicker and easier than
a pivot table (I need to get this done sharpish!)

=SUMPRODUCT(($C$2:$C$10000=$R5)*(O$2:O$10000))


all I need now is how to do a similar thing but instead of a sum, just
pick out the maximum value in column "O" corresponding to player "$R5"
matched in the list of items ($C)

hope this is a quickie.