I BET Iain was quite excited
by the prospect.
This is the continuation of a debate that has been going on for a number of years. I do not know if you are a member of the Pike & Shot Society Yahoo user group or the Warflag Blenheim Yahoo user group (I know Iain is for both) but it has been extensively discussed on both sites with various people presenting evidence (Coins, paintings, drawings and even a scene on the Blenheim tapestry all showing pike armed troops at Blenheim, as far as i am aware there is no such evidence for Ramillies).
I do not know if Iain has met up with these people, but it looks like he may have done and found more evidence as well.
It is my beleif that pikes were issued in 1701, but it begs the question what training did men get in using them as I would assume that from 1697 British infantry were only trained and drilled to use the musket and socket bayonet (probably received training in the use of the pike as they went along sort of on the job training). I can see units being sent to Flanders in 1701 with pikes and by 1704 they would most probably have got themselves fully armed with muskets (by whatever means possible), and that units sent in the following years up to 1704-5-6 will be in various states of rearming.
So I could see at Blenheim that units that had been in Flanders since 1701 will be fully musket armed and that units that had just arrived in 1704 would still have their pikes in whatever ratio they were in.
Post Blenheim there must have been plenty of muskets available and they must have stored them up and issued them accordingly. So by Ramillies unless a unit was fresh off the boat, no unit would have carried thier pikes into battle(left them with the baggage). This must have also applied to the Dutch.