It's official ? Devonshire Cougars will be without three of their best footballers until late next January.

The whistle was blown at 5 p.m. yesterday on the deadline for strike duo Raymond Beach and Heys Wolfe as well as top defender Omar Butterfield to appeal their one-year ban for refusing to submit to a third drug test.

Chairman of the Bermuda Council for Drug Free Sport (BCDS) Jon Beard said this meant the trio would now have to endure the full weight of punishment ? both domestically and internationally ? for their infraction.

The bans which take effect from "the actual date of the infraction" (in this case the dates on which the players were to have undergone their third tests) will see one of them sidelined until January 28, 2006, and the other two until January 29, 2006.

Beard noted that while Devonshire Recreation Club indicated their intention to challenge the matter, nothing was ever forthcoming.

"They did write and say that they wanted to appeal but that was all and we need the full grounds ? as stated in our SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) ? in order to put it forward to the Results Committee. They would have had to provide us with full grounds," he explained.

The season came to a premature conclusion for the Cougars stars after they refused a third test when their first two proved 'invalid' ahead of the Bermuda national team's match against Brazilian champions Santos on January 30.

That refusal immediately barred them from all competition for a year. However, had they undergone another drug test and counselling within a certain time thereafter they would have been allowed to continue domestic action. However, they did not do so.

Beard said determining the appeal deadline was complicated as it was based on several evolving factors and was not a set time period, for example, a month after the original infraction.

"It's in our SOPs and it's not an easy thing to explain. It depends on all the different circumstances. There's an initial deadline and when you get a response, there's another deadline attached to that response and all kinds of things.

"It's a step-by-step process."