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Top seed Foster suffers shock defeat

Following the recent successful tour of Bermuda's juniors to the British Virgin Islands to compete in the Junior CASA 2007 Squash championship, the Bermuda Senior Men's Team are competing in the Senior CASA Squash Championships being held at the Liguanea Club in Kingston, Jamaica.

Bermuda's five-man team includes Bermuda national champion, Patrick Foster (seeded No. 1 in Men's Singles), former professional Nick Kyme (seeded two) along with Michael Shrubb, Melrindo Caines, and Richard Van Liendon.

Both Foster and Kyme cruised through their first round matches in three straight games. Foster defeated Marlon White of Barbados 3-0 (9-2,9-2,9-5) while Kyme eased through against another Barbadian, Fabian Goodridge 3-0 (9-4,9-1,9-0).

Michael Shrubb had a tough encounter with number four seed, Wayne Burrows of Jamaica, losing 3-0 (9-6, 9-1, 9-0) while Richard Van Liendon went down 3-0 to Mark Sealy of Barbados (9-2,9-0, 9-3).

Unfortunately, Melrindo Caines was nursing a hamstring injury and decided to sit out the singles.

Although seeded one, Bermuda's Open champion, Patrick Foster suffered an ankle injury in training last week, and this no doubt contributed in major part to his shock defeat in the second round to number nine seed Paul Deverteuill of Trinidad and Tobago 1-3 (9-6, 7-9, 5-9, 5-9).

Nick Kyme won through to the quarter-finals where he met the number six seed, Gavin Cumberbatch of Barbados.

According to Karen Anderson, writing for Squashsite.com, this match was all about pace with both players trying to figure out each other's game.

Kyme starting well, using his pace and deft drop shots to draw Cumberbatch back and forth on the court, and he easily won the first game 9-3. However, Cumberbatch reversed his fortunes, winning the next two games 9-5, 9-7 with some amazing retrievals and accurate shot making.

These two games must have taken their toll on Kyme as the match came down to a matter of attrition with Cumberbatch winning 9-0 in the fourth.

Shrubb and Van Liendon lost in men's consolation, but Van Liendon had an exhausting encounter with Robert McDavid of Guyana before succumbing 3-2 (9-3, 7-9, 6-9, 9-2, 9-0).

BSRA spokesman Roger Sherratt said: "It was very disappointing to hear that Patrick was still having trouble with his ankle because he's a great competitor who was strongly favoured to reach the final.

"Since his retirement from the professional circuit Nick has been taking a well-earned break from squash to concentrate on his career, and we knew that with the high standard of squash in the Caribbean he would be sorely tested.

"We are now out of singles competition but our Bermuda team should be competitive in the men's team event starting today, depending on whether or not Patrick and Mel will be fit enough to play."

Bermuda squash fans interested in following Senior CASA can obtain results on-line through www.squashsite.co.uk