[Xymon] Combining Macros in alerts.cfg EXHOST?

I'm trying to make my alerts.cfg a lot simpler.

I've got two macros defining groups of hosts. To simplify slightly:

    $NOPAGE=%(^*.eng|^netmon2).example.com
    $VIP=%(^web|^ftp|^mail-relay).example.com,web-vip,mail-vip

Each macro works by itself when I use it in a rule. However I want to make a rule that groups these two together, something like so:

    HOST=* EXHOST=%($VIP,$NOPAGE) SERVICE=$SYSENG
     include syseng.escalation.cfg

I'm not getting this to work , with various combinations : %($NOPAGE,$VIP) %($NOPAGE|$VIP)

The rules are catching hosts in $NOPAGE but not in $VIP I could make a third combined group, but since I've got other rules that just apply to $VIP or $NOPAGE it would be nice to be able to do this

thanks for any clues Betsy