Nick Kyme has again been drawn against Australian David Palmer in the first round of the Bermuda Masters ? with organisers forced to tear up the previous schedule on Monday following the retirement of the tournament?s number one seed last week.

Canadian Jonathon Power ? the world number one and defending Masters champion ? shocked the squash world in New York on Friday when he announced he was quitting the professional tour after 15 successful years.

The news was a potential disaster for Virtual Spectator Bermuda Masters co-ordinators Ross Triffitt and Kim Carter, who had already sent the official tournament programmes to the printers that day ? with Power?s name and picture featuring heavily throughout.

They managed to stop the presses in the nick of time, but have had nonetheless to completely redo the draw for the first round which begins on Sunday, April 2.

The highlight of the original early clashes was the match up between Kyme and Palmer ? with the latter well known to the local squash community as a former world number one, world champion and resident of Bermuda for more than four years.

As a wildcard entrant into the second biggest tournament in professional squash, the world number 69 is required to play one of the 16 seeds in the opening round.

And despite a one in 256 chance of being drawn against his occasional training partner on both occasions, Kyme?s name somehow emerged from the hat at the appropriate time ? with the showdown scheduled for Monday, April 3 at 7.30 p.m.

?The gods of squash obviously wanted this match to happen,? Kyme joked yesterday.

?I was looking forward to playing Dave in the first place but when I heard that Jonathon had retired it seemed unlikely that we?d get to play each other. But as luck would have it, we?ve been drawn together again which is fine as far as I am concerned. It should be a great night for Bermuda and Bermudian squash.?

Meanwhile, Triffitt flatly denied yesterday that the draw had been rigged.

But he did concede that the ?Battle of Bermuda? hype which the match will undoubtedly attract in the build-up will add significantly to the interest surrounding the event?s early stages.

He admitted also that Power?s withdrawal had caused a large number of last-minute headaches that they could have done without.

?Of course it?s disappointing to lose our defending champion and number one seed,? he said.

?But Jonathon Power controls his own destiny and we cannot be upset with him for making this decision. It has caused us all sorts of problems though. We were just going to press with the programmes and that had to be stopped at the 11th hour and the changes made. Doing the draw all over again was not ideal either.

?What I would like to stress however is that the loss of Power is not the end of the world and we still have all of the world?s top players in the draw. The last few days have been a bit hectic but everything is now back on track and we?re all looking forward immensely to April 2.?

In normal circumstances, Power?s place in the tournament would have been filled by world number 32 Simon Parke of England.

But having not expected to be eligible for the Masters, several players just outside the world?s top 31 signed up to play in the Irish Open which is running at the same time.

Once entered, it is not possible under tour rules for a player to withdraw and compete in another tournament and therefore world number 35, Dan Jenson of Australia, will be the lucky recipient of an automatic place in the first round.