in protest at moves to oust him from office three months before his one-year term was up.

In his resignation letter, leaked anonymously to The Royal Gazette , Smith accused other members of ignoring the BLTA constitution to "railroad through a flawed proposal'' which is likely to result in David Lambert taking over as president next week.

Smith was elected BLTA president at the organisation's annual general meeting last April and the constitution states he should serve for a full year.

But in his letter, Smith said a meeting of six of the 13 executive members voted to have an election for president in January instead of April.

The BLTA's AGM has been moved forward to next Wednesday and Lambert, immediate past president and director of tennis at Elbow Beach, is to stand.

Clubs can nominate candidates for the presidency up until 2 p.m. on Monday, but if no-one comes forward before then, Lambert will stand unopposed.

The anonymous informer also provided a letter from Lambert to Smith, dated November 16, in which Lambert declared his intention to run for the presidency and requested certain "perks'' to go with the job.

Lambert asked for all-expenses-paid trips to Bermuda's Davis Cup ties, the International Tennis Federation AGM and to one of the four grand slam events.

(the French Open, Wimbledon, the US Open or the Australian Open).

Smith argued that according to the constitution, a nominating committee should have met to discuss and confirm names of any candidates to replace him, but this was not done.

But Lambert yesterday disputed Smith's version of events and said a nominating committee had met and that nothing unconstitutional had taken place.

In his letter, addressed to the secretary of the BLTA and dated December 2 last year, Smith wrote: "I cannot continue to serve in an organisation that ignores the principle of following the constitution.

"Following last night's meeting, it was made clear to me that officers would rather railroad through a flawed proposal presented by an ex-officio member with no voting rights in calling for an early election so that he may stand.

"The constitution is clear on this matter -- I was elected by a majority vote in April to serve out a full year.... It is obvious to me that several persons wanted to interpret the constitution to suit personal agendas.'' Smith went on to defend his record as president, adding: "Through the efforts of many volunteers including myself, we have secured more funding from the corporate community and and government agencies, established a new national squad training programme for juniors, undertaken extensive reviews of the state of tennis and increased participation in tournaments and leagues than ever before achieved.'' When contacted yesterday, Smith was surprised to hear his letter had been leaked, but confirmed it was genuine and said he had found the whole episode "disturbing and disappointing''.

Smith said: "It was clear in my mind that there was an agenda to force an early election. The motivations behind that did not make it comfortable for me to continue working with them.'' Lambert said January was a better time for the BLTA to hold the AGM and that was why the executive had decided to bring it forward from April.

"The execuctive felt it would be better to hold the AGM at the beginning of the year,'' said Lambert. "With the XL in April and local tournaments in March, it would help the executive to get a head start, rather than waiting for the season to start.

"No one person can make the executive's decision for them and Colin has interpreted what happened differently from others.'' On why he had requested the trips, should he be elected, Lambert said: "Every time we do not go to an ITF meeting, we are missing out on personal dialogue with them that could help tennis in Bermuda.

"Whoever goes -- not necessarily the president -- should not have to meet all the expenses themselves. There should be some kind of allowance, whether it's $10 or $100 or whatever the association can afford.

"These trips will help the BLTA to keep up with what's going on in tennis.

Nothing has been approved yet, I have just set down what I'd like to do and it's up to the executive whether they accept it or not.'' Although Smith has also quit as chairman of the BLTA Winter league and as a member of the Junior Tennis Board, he said he intends to continue holding down a seat on the executive.

"As immediate past president, I have a constitutional right to still serve on the board and it is my intention to serve,' ' said Smith.