Thanks guys,
it turned out that one of the add-in updates must have somehow altered config so my time server was not set. The RPi deemed itself in march 2017 at which time the certificate Sky Ticket is using as of June is not yet valid.
Added time server, waited for sync et voilá , things worked again. When reading through chewitt's comments I *FP* , as he's right, I don't need the intermediate, just the root CA which indeed IS in the bundle. So all is good regarding certs. I'd rather not allow to add certs to the bundle but handle additional trust in the code which requires it (VPN bundles, etc).
Thank you for the prompt responses and good leads, happy to see that not only the software is great to use but the forum is as well. Thumbs up. !