After an hour-long battle against a player ranked significantly higher than himself, Bermuda's James Stout came up just short in his bid to land the Island a bronze medal at the CAC Games.

Stout, who is set to turn professional shortly, went down 3-2 to Salvadorian Carlos Schonenberg in the team event in San Salvador. Coupled with Mel Caines' loss to Walter Weisskopf, it meant Bermuda crashed out of the medal hunt.

Stout's match hinged on the outcome of the first game.

The Bermudian was not expected to be in contention given that his rival had been one of the top seeds in the men's individual event.

And it appeared the officials had got it right with Schonenberg starting well and gaining a 5-0 lead.

It looked as though the match would be short but at 5-1 down Stout played a winning cross-court drop to win service.

Incredibly, the Islander then moved to game ball at 8-5 as Schonenberg tinned three shots, had a stroke awarded against him and Stout played three outright winners.

Serving for the game, Stout appeared unstoppable. But he made an error and Schonenberg, in a complete reversal of fortune, went from 5-8 down to take the game 10-8.

Stout came back with renewed vigour in the second game. Leading 4-1, he played a backhand crosscourt drive from the front right court off his opponent's boast. The ball was dying in the left back corner of the court when Schonenberg twisted his knee and crashed into the glass side wall in an unsuccessful attempt to retrieve it.

Play was held up while the player's injury was attended to. When play resumed Stout won the next four short rallies on winners to take the game 9-1 after 13 minutes.

When the third game started Schonenberg was playing with a bandaged knee. He levelled the score at four-all, but at 5-4 down he conceded a stroke. In a repeat of the second game, Stout took the remaining points, predominantly on his opponent's errors.

Stout appeared in control at this stage, leading 2-1, but he must have been regretting conceding the first game after having led 8-5

Both players were content to play at a controlled deliberate pace, but this worked to Schonenberg's advantage rather than Stout's with Schonenberg recovering from 3-1 down to lead 5-3.

Stout pulled back to 5-4 down but an error by the Bermudian gave Schonenberg service and he played back-to-back winners, the first a cross-court drop from the back of the court which hit the nick.

Stout again recovered to 7-5 down but he then conceded a stroke and an error followed by a winning boast from Schonenberg from the left court gave the Salvadorean the game 9-5 in nine minutes.

Schonenberg took a 3-0 lead in the final game, but Stout recovered to three-all. Schonenberg pulled ahead to 4-3 then Stout moved to 5-4 up only to see Schonenberg regain the lead 6-5.

Stout levelled it six-all only to have the Salvadorean move to 7-6 up. Schonenberg was clearly tired at this point and his knee was still bothering him and Stout levelled the game at seven-all with a reverse angle.

Within two points of the match, which would in all likelihood have given Bermuda a bronze medal, Stout let a straight drive go to the back wall expecting it to come off for him to play a straight shot.

But the ball died at the back and Schonenberg was now serving at seven-all.

The Salvadorean won the next point on a tight straight drive which hugged the side wall and a disguised cross court drive which Stout did not see until too late gave the Salvadorean the game and the match - the score 8-10, 9-1, 9-4, 5-9, 7-9 in 59 minutes.

Caines, the third string, faced off against Weisskopf next.

The pressure on Caines was immense and it took its toll. He struggled to make an impression on his opponent until he was down 8-1 in the first game.

Three successive rallies ended in lets before Weisskopf's error gave Caines the next point.

There followed two successive errors by Caines, which gave Weisskopf the game 9-2.

In the second game, Caines struggled to settle down and went from 1-3 down to concede the game 9-1 as his volley drops let him down - he tinned three of them and conceded two strokes.

The third game was better with Caines playing more deliberately and controlled squash yet Weisskopf moved from 5-2 to take the game and the match 9-2, 9-1, 9-2 in 25 minutes.

El Salvador's number one, Jose Coronado, chose not to play the dead rubber.

Yesterday morning the Bermudians played Barbados in their quest for fifth place. The results were not available at press time.