Former tour pro Patrick Foster rolled back the years to inflict a shock defeat on perennial Bermuda number one Nick Kyme on Saturday night in the national squash championships.

Kyme, who still gets a wildcard to join the world?s top 31 players in April?s Bermuda Masters, went into the Fast Forward Freight championship final nursing a bad back and former world 69 Foster was only too happy to take full advantage in a pulsating match in which he triumphed 11-9, 11-9, 5-11, 11-8.

Foster, who quit the tour more than two years ago, had been working hard for this contest and despite still not being able to match the local champ for fitness, was able to pull off some stupendous shots to send shockwaves through the squash community.

More than 150 turned out for the match that Kyme, who has just returned from a number of tournaments across North America, was expected to win ? and win comfortably.

Despite Foster?s incredible shotmaking, which had propelled him further up the world rankings than perhaps his fitness merited, the Bermudian number one for the past nine years was the clear favourite.

But a defiant Foster, an Irish international who has been coaching in Bermuda for the last year, has gone all out in the previous six weeks to train for his ?one competitive match of the year? and the hard work paid off as he was able to outplay his younger opponent despite running out of gas in the final game.

?I had nothing left in the last,? said Foster, who put in some serious work on his fitness ahead of the clash, including a January free from alcohol.

?I don?t think I could have hung on much longer, I just gave it everything I had for the last few rallies.

?It?s a great feeling to win this, even if perhaps I wasn?t expecting to. This is pretty much my one chance at a competitive match all year so it would have been silly not to have prepared properly.

?I had a dry January and did a lot of work on court with Ross Triffitt (director of squash) while Nick was away playing in tournaments. I was really up for this and I went into it knowing I would have to work really hard and take that first game.

?If I had lost that, I just don?t think I could have come back but once I had the first I knew it was possible even though I pretty much ran myself into the ground by the end.?

Foster admitted that his victory gave him a taste of the pro life again but he was realistic about his squash and the reasons he quit the sport in the first place.

?If I won the lottery, I would be back out playing squash now,? he continued.

?But I managed to rack up plenty of debt in my four years on tour and I just couldn?t keep doing it. I am going to be paying that money off for the next few years anyway and to stay on tour longer without any of the big sponsorships would have just meant even more years struggling after I quit.

?Squash isn?t a sport where you can make a lot of money, unless you are right up there with the big boys.?

With Kyme struggling to find his length, particularly on the forehand side, and making some remarkable unforced errors, Foster was able to take command of many of the early rallies, displaying flashes of sheer genius that had his more naturally athletic opponent scrambling to all corners of the court.

Neither player could create any daylight in the score but Foster had just enough experience and composure to come back from 8-7 to take the opener 11-9 and set up what proved to be a remarkable upset.

With the kids that he coaches week in, week out screaming for ?Paddy?, the 29-year-old again did enough in the second to forge further ahead, his ability to delay his shots long enough to confound his somewhat predictable opponent proving decisive.

Although Kyme fought back to take the third game 11-6, the Island number one was lacking the killer edge when ahead in rallies and failing to take advantage of his opponent?s increasingly heavy legs.

In what was to be the final game, even though Foster was reduced to almost walking pace, Kyme didn?t step things up enough allowing the challenger to eke out the concluding points to claim the giant trophy.

Kyme, left cursing his back injury, will now have to prepare with renewed vigour for the upcoming Masters tournament, the draw for which will be announced tomorrow.

In 2003 South African Gary Plumstead, who was the previous club pro, claimed the national title.