Less than a year since assuming the Bermuda Lawn Tennis Association's helm, Terry Smith has resigned as president.

The latest furore in this incident-plagued sporting body came during a meeting last Wednesday night. Smith and club representatives clashed over proposed changes which the former wanted to make to the BLTA's by-laws. Though The Royal Gazette could not ascertain the exact bone of contention it was indicated that other BLTA members did not share Smith's view.

"I guess it was a difference of opinion . . . There were some issues in the by-laws that he wanted to change," explained Allan Simmons, an executive member and an honorary vice-president of the BLTA who attended the meeting. "It's a democratic procedure . . . you vote on issues and some things are agreed to and some things are not . . . that's the way a democratic organisation runs."

Though declining to divulge greater details of what occurred at the BLTA Office at Tennis Stadium, he assured that the meeting was not acrimonious.

"It was a very calm meeting," said Simmons.

Asked if rumours that other executive members were on the verge of quitting were true, he replied that he was not considering resigning nor - as far as he knew - were any others on the executive.

A new president, he said, would likely be elected at the BLTA's annual general meeting on January 15 and already a long-standing tennis administrator is being courted to take over.

In a reverse of the year-end slogan "out with the old, in with the new", the BLTA is apparently seeking to go "in with the old" for 2003 as five-time president David Lambert is favoured to replace Smith.

However, Lambert who quit several high-profile tennis posts in 1999 to concentrate on business commitments is far from decided on the matter.

"It's just a possibility. Several people have called me but I have not said yes or no. I have been approached by members of the executive and club representatives, asking if I would be interested. It's flattering to know they think of my time and service in a favourable enough way to ask me.

"I am always interested in working with tennis because that's what I do. It's my life. But for me to give an answer right now - I can't.

"This was not part of my plan for 2003. I have to look at if I have the time and ask myself `Does David want to keep going back in?'. I have to evaluate the situation and see where I am with a busy business over here. I have a lot of plans for 2003. I have to weigh it against the year that's coming.

"It's something I have to sit down and work out not only with my business partners but also with my family. I either do something the whole way, properly or I say no," said Lambert, who is due to give his answer by Christmas Eve.

The well-known tennis coach and fundraiser has not been active in the BLTA since his last stint as president which ended in January this year when Smith - once vice-president under Lambert - was elected.

Smith's demise is the latest in a series of upheavals which has plagued the BLTA in recent years.

In 1994, then vice-president Ian Waddington resigned over a seedings controversy, paving the way for Lambert to assume the presidency the following year when Keith Fisher stepped down.

Six months into Lambert's tenure, the BLTA was rocked by an International Tennis Federation (ITF) official's decision not to move to the Island as a development consultant.

This threw plans for the implementation of a schools' tennis programme into chaos.

In May 1999, Lambert quit a number of BLTA posts, citing work commitments as his reason.

However, in the wake of then president Colin Smith's resignation in January 2000, it was Lambert who again stepped forward to take on the association's leadership.

Just last week, top local player James Collieson berated the BLTA for a lack of focus and organisation in pushing Bermuda's tennis onto the international scene.