Title favourite David Palmer maintained his perfect start to the Randall & Quilter Legends of Squash tournament with a second successive group match victory yesterday.

Having overcome Welshman David Evans 11-6, 7-11, 11-8, on the opening day on Sunday, the two-times world champion endured another hard-fought encounter to overcome former world No 2 Peter Marshall in straight sets, 14-12, 11-7.

Palmer, who lived on island at one stage during his professional career, spoke of his relief at beating a player he always looked up to and attempted to emulate throughout his own career.

“I knew it was going to be a really tough game,” Palmer said. “Peter is still in incredible shape and so I knew I had to be on my game. I was desperate not to go through three games because this can be become a long week with the format of the competition. It was all about getting on court and getting off as quickly as possible.

“No matter how tired Peter gets you know he won’t give up and even though it was a straight sets victory, he didn’t give me anything.

“Some of the other guys, a few long rallies would kill them off a bit a bit but Peter has a deceiving element to him where he looks tired but you can’t let yourself be fooled by that.

“If you give him time you can see how good he is and when he shapes with his two-handed technique, you can’t always read what is coming.”

For Marshall, who overcame English compatriot Simon Parke on the opening day 11-5, 11-6, the narrow loss of the first game in which he saved three game points, ultimately proved pivotal.

“It was a really tough match tonight and that first game was some of the hardest squash I’ve played in years,” he said.

“I probably needed to win that first game to stand any chance of winning against David.

“He’s such an unbelievable player and still physically so good so it was so hard to get the ball past him but in a strange way I thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Meanwhile, Scotland’s John White and Holland’s LJ Anjema also maintained perfect starts to the tournament.

Former world No 1 Whiteovercame England’s Nick Taylor 9-11, 11-8, 11-9, while Anjema dealt beat Canadain Jonathon Power 11-4, 11-7.

There was also a first win of the tournament for Evans who prevailed against Parke, 10-12, 11-9, 11-5.