note 8294 added to Variable variables

Rupert, reading the introduction at the top of the page you have to resolve the inherrent ambiguity in $$var[1]. That is, do you mean $ $var[1] or $$var [1]? So you should be accessing ${$var[1]} or {$$var}[1] as appropriate (the latter if I read your code correctly). http://www.php.net/manual/language.variables.variable.php