okay a breakthrough for you freindly local pretend dba
I used
EXEC sp_ABRestoreDb 'PHPBB_Test,TESTBERAN,AEROCONF,PROCEDURESTEST', '\ewcpnt12\restore\Databases\&\&_db_*'
so it creates new db's using the correct name and finds corresponding .bak file in the folder specified.
that is a good result.
I did get a few errors, but they are mostly to do with the reg key for the default backup location I guess
Msg 22001, Level 1, State 22001
RegQueryValueEx() returned error 2, 'The system cannot find the file specified.'
and also
Server: Msg 446, Level 16, State 9, Procedure sp_abFixUserLogins, Line 21
but in essence it works and will do what I need, just means I need to use the comma separted list for database names.
You are the SQL king thank you!