diff --git a/creatur.cabal b/creatur.cabal
--- a/creatur.cabal
+++ b/creatur.cabal
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 Name:              creatur
-Version:           4.1.7
+Version:           4.2.0
 Stability:         experimental
 Synopsis:          Framework for artificial life experiments.
 Description:       A software framework for automating experiments
diff --git a/src/ALife/Creatur/Counter.hs b/src/ALife/Creatur/Counter.hs
--- a/src/ALife/Creatur/Counter.hs
+++ b/src/ALife/Creatur/Counter.hs
@@ -20,7 +20,8 @@
 import ALife.Creatur.Clock (Clock, currentTime, incTime)
 import ALife.Creatur.Util (modifyLift, getLift)
 import Control.Monad (unless)
-import Control.Monad.State (StateT, gets, modify)
+import Control.Monad.IO.Class (liftIO)
+import Control.Monad.State (StateT, get, gets, modify)
 import System.Directory (doesFileExist)
 import System.IO (hGetContents, withFile, Handle, IOMode(ReadMode))
 import Text.Read (readEither)
@@ -43,7 +44,8 @@
   current = initIfNeeded >> gets cValue
   increment = do
     modify (\c -> c { cValue=1 + cValue c })
-    getLift store
+    k <- get
+    liftIO $ store k
 
 store :: PersistentCounter -> IO ()
 store counter = writeFile (cFilename counter) $ show (cValue counter)
@@ -51,7 +53,7 @@
 initIfNeeded :: StateT PersistentCounter IO ()
 initIfNeeded = do
   isInitialised <- gets cInitialised
-  unless isInitialised $ modifyLift initialise
+  unless isInitialised $ modifyLift initialise >> getLift store
 
 initialise :: PersistentCounter -> IO PersistentCounter
 initialise counter = do
@@ -63,7 +65,10 @@
       case x of
         Left msg -> error $ "Unable to read counter from " ++ f ++ ": " ++ msg
         Right c  -> return $ counter { cInitialised=True, cValue=c }
-    else return $ counter { cInitialised=True, cValue=0 }
+    else do
+      let k = counter { cInitialised=True, cValue=0 }
+      store k
+      return k
 
 instance Clock PersistentCounter where
   currentTime = current
diff --git a/test/Main.hs b/test/Main.hs
--- a/test/Main.hs
+++ b/test/Main.hs
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
 module Main where
 
+import ALife.Creatur.CounterQC (test)
 import ALife.Creatur.Database.FileSystemQC (test)
 import ALife.Creatur.UtilQC (test)
 import ALife.Creatur.Genetics.CodeQC (test)
@@ -25,6 +26,7 @@
 tests :: [TF.Test]
 tests = 
   [ 
+    ALife.Creatur.CounterQC.test,
     ALife.Creatur.Database.FileSystemQC.test,
     ALife.Creatur.UtilQC.test,
     ALife.Creatur.Genetics.CodeQC.test,