Purely by chance I gave the grass the first cut of the year today, exactly a year (Saturday to Saturday) since last year. The mower has been lying in Mum's garage since last October. I dragged it out, checked the oil, added some petrol (bought last year), turned engine over slowly a couple of times (to circulate the oil), primed the carb, and it started first pull.
I have to be honest though, if you follow the starting instructions in the manual, you would be all day trying to get it to start. The manual says prime it 3 to 5 presses of the bulb. I give it 30, and usually about another 10 each time I stop and need to restart, during a mowing.
Great little engine though. The grass was wet and in some spots 2ft tall and the mower just ploughed through it.