Lifting his racquet above his head in triumph with a grimace of delight, the silent assassin Lee Beachill showed his first real emotion of the tournament.

A cry of "yes" as he left the court, accompanied by a mighty clenched fist, was proof that victory in the final of the Bermuda Squash Open really meant something to the fourth seed, even if his court laid-back behaviour throughout the week suggested otherwise.

After a week of dismissive drop-shots, unerringly solid strokes and referee arguments largely limited to withering stares, the wiry Englishman sneaked into the final and knocked off Bermuda resident and crowd favourite David Palmer to earn more than $7,000 in prize money and enough ranking points to push him significantly closer to his goal of world number one.

In an calm, controlled and deadly way, Beachill once again took advantage of a tired opponent to triumph 15-11, 15-9, 15-10 to claim the final.

His semi-final victory over Nick Matthew came after his compatriot and performed two acts of giant killing.

His victory in the sell-out final came over a tired Palmer who had battled hard to knock out favourite Peter Nicol and squash's danger man Jonathon Power over the two previous days.

And it was that latter game, played over 103 minutes of intense action which saw Palmer triumph and Power take a trip to the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital with a suspected broken bone in his leg, which set the tone for Saturday's game.

Although refusing to use it as an excuse, Palmer couldn't match his performance of the previous night and surrendered too many points with unforced errors while his normal elasticity failed him as his aching body couldn't quite reach the angles required of it by Beachill's wicked mix of clever drops and perfect lengths.

The final failed to quite live up to top billing, unsurprisingly considering the exertions of the previous night, but you can only beat what is in front of you and Beachill made sure he did that with the minimum of fuss.

"I got a few lucky bounces my way, which put David under pressure from the off," said Beachill, a focused squash player since the age of eight.

"David is a skilful player and I had to play some of the best squash I have played all year just to sneak a win against him.

"I'm delighted with this win and it should be put me up to number three in the world. Of course my aim is to become the world number one but all I can do is try and be the best that I can be.

"The Bermuda Open could be one of the best events on the Tour in the future and all the players are hoping that it appears on the calendar next year."

From the opening rallies it was clear Beachill had the edge with his clinical and merciless play at the front of the court stopping Palmer from getting into the game.

The frustrations of this were clear as he uncharacteristically lost his temper with the referee at 8-5 and then a wandering cameraman at 9-5 in the first game.

He succumbed 15-11 in the opener and despite a crowd-pleasing shot behind his back on the opening point, he also failed to make in impression in the second, going down 15-9.

The shouts of "go Bermuda" ? an indication that his residency here has endeared him to the crowd ? failed to inspire him and despite rallying back from 8-3 down in the final game to level things up he was finally dispatched by his unforgiving opponent.

"I'm not going to use being tired as an excuse ? I have won tournaments when I have been tired before," said a dejected Palmer after his defeat.

"I'm a little disappointed but Lee played well out there and wouldn't let me in to any rallies.

"I am pleased that I have shown signs I am recovering and I have got through a hard tournament without any problems with my leg.

"It would have been a dream come true to win this but I am pleased with the way I played and pleased to get this far."