Bermuda came as close to Rosebowl squash glory as they could without actually winning at the weekend.

The Island squad tied with their Cayman hosts at the end of the tournament but agonisingly lost the championship on retrogression.

The tournament is decided by the number of divisions a nation wins, and then, if there is a tie, by the number of individual match victories.

As it turned out the Caymans, who cunningly opted to play Bermuda first while they were cold before taking on Jamaica and the Bahamas, scored higher and therefore took the honours.

Island player Roger Sherratt, who was part of the veterans' team, said all those who took part had reason to be proud of their performances.

"Bermuda had the best result that we have had overseas in Rosebowl for many, many years -- it was a very, very successful tournament,'' he said. "We came as close as we could without winning it.'' The best performances came in the Men's A and Veterans' categories where the Island took the divisions outright. A second was secured in the Men's B section and third in the Women's.

"The Men's A we had not won at all since 1982 and Veterans we had only ever won twice and both of those were at home,'' Sherratt added.

"It was very, very well done and I think much of the thanks have to go to our coach Gary Plumstead.'' Sherratt said one of the highlights of the three-day tournament was Plumstead's performance on the first day against the Caymans.

"He played John MacRury who has been the Caribbean squash champion for many years and has been almost undefeated,'' said Sherratt. "Gary played a brilliant game and won very convincingly 9-0, 9-0, 9-1.

"I must say I have never seen a home audience so quiet. In fact the biggest cheer of the day came when MacRury scored his point.'' Sherratt praised Plumstead's coaching ability which he said played a big part in the Island's success.

"He has been our coach for the last year and has done an excellent job,'' he said. "He has worked very hard, particularly with the Men's A team and the Vets. He has had them doing regular coaching and that has made a big difference to our squash ability.'' On the final day against the Bahamas, Bermuda really turned it on.

"That was the key day,'' Sherratt said. "We had to win every single one of the four categories and we did exactly that. Our Men's A team won 5-0, our Men's B team won 5-0, our Ladies' team won 4-1 and the Veterans' team won 4-1.

"We did the best we could possibly do and we then had to sit and wait all afternoon and await the outcome of the Cayman versus Jamaica match.

"We just needed Jamaica to win two categories. They won the Men's A but they lost all the others, which meant that the Caymans would actually win overall by retrogression.'' Individually, Chase Toogood, Nick Kyme and Plumstead won all their matches in the A division, while in the Vets, Denise Kyme, Christine Barnes and Tony Prentice also swept all before them. In the Ladies' team, Tessa McKenzie won two of her three matches.

"On the last day two of our girls who were competing for the first time and had not won any matches won both of their games -- Nicola Swain, who has come through our junior programme, and Suzanne Rose,'' said Sherratt.