mistaken for a firetrap. But the only thing burning in this surprisingly small lair is Mr. Blackburne's hunger for ideas.

Beyond the dozens of boxes which line the walls of the narrow hallway which lead to his desk, Mr. Blackburne greets visitors the same way he approaches his life -- he is an uncompromising cyclone.

Many of the boxes which spill over into his main working area are filled with the wine bottles he imports from around the world and Mr. Blackburne, 62, has certainly made a name for himself as a pre-eminent expert in the wine trade.

The glow on Mr. Blackburne's youthful face does not come from sipping his eclectic collection, it originates from his enthusiasm as a prolific inventor.

Like most wine lovers, Mr. Blackburne can list the names and years of good vintages, and 1995 has been a good for him. After more than two decades of toil, his double-strung tennis racquet is beginning to show up at tennis courts all over the world.

Ross Perot owns one. Maggie Eastwood (yes, Clint's wife) played with one on the tony courts of Pebble Beach until it was stolen. She promptly ordered four more.

The racquet -- which sells for an imposing $430 -- has also been seen at local events, most recently the year-ending tournaments at Coral Beach. Mr.

Blackburne estimates that there are more than 300 currently in use, and while it may be a far cry from where he'd like sales to be he couldn't be happier.

The revolutionary racquet has two sets of strings which lie on each side of the frame which -- according to Mr. Blackburne -- eliminates the frame shot which plagues so many players. Hence, a player gets twice the hitting area without the ball deflecting as a frame shot.

"It's fascinating because we've actually taped a number of the major events over the last couple of years and in our promotional video we're going to show clips of serious players like (Pete) Sampras and (Andre) Agassi and everybody else who's made horrible frame shots. The first thing they do is look at their racquet and blame it.'' Mr. Blackburne has invested more than $5 million of his own money into developing the racquet, an idea which sprung to life from the grass courts of Mount Pleasant 22 years ago. A few hours later he was hard at work on his first wooden prototype -- from a frame which had up until then masqueraded as a Slazenger IC.

From that moment forward it could be argued his life became more high strung than ever. He spent months trying out various designs and string patterns and when Vitas Gerulaitis marvelled at the racquet while he was staying in Bermuda, Mr. Blackburne became more convinced than ever he would be able to get backers for his bright idea.

By late 1977, however, Mr. Blackburne's world came crashing down when the International Tennis Federation outlawed the racquet from all competition.

That fight would last 13 years, but the tough-minded Mr. Blackburne carried it to the highest echelons of the tennis world and was victorious.

Should anyone have thought differently? "In a way the ITF thing was a blessing in disguise,'' Mr. Blackburne says.

"The materials for the racquet were not really there or the technology to use the materials were not there until literally a year-and-a-half ago.'' Mr. Blackburne talks about a tennis racquet the way the poet Neruda used to describe walking near the ocean of his beloved Chile.

He can make terms like pre-pro graphite or 5,600 pounds of internal crunch or five-ounce hoops come startlingly to life before your eyes.

"It's certainly beyond the requirements of space technology,'' he says as he massages the handle of his double-strung wonder.

There's no doubt in his mind the racquet will be a smash hit despite the roadblocks he's faced during the past two decades. The other day he was orchestrating a conference call with the former chairmen of two major US sporting goods companies since he hopes to gain a foothold into that lucrative market.

"It's the key,'' he says. "It's about 40 or 50 percent of the world market.'' Whether or not he can venture unscathed into the US remains to be seen.

Experts say he needs to team up with an industry giant or else the racquet won't have a chance.

Three million tennis racquets were sold in the US this year, down from 3.2 million in 1994.

Mr. Brad Patterson, executive director of the Tennis Industry Association, says that seven firms -- Wilson, Prince, Dunlop, Head, Pro Kennex, Yonex and Spalding -- have cornered the market and "it's going to be very difficult for anyone to deal with companies who are entrenched here.'' Patterson and Tennis magazine's senior editor Mr. Bill Gray say Mr.

Blackburne's racquet is too expensive. "It's outrageously priced,'' says Mr.

Gray.

These days the priciest model in the US retails between $279 and $300 and it's among the new wave of extra-long racquets.

Mr. Blackburne will also have to compete with the dozens or so new models which appear on the scene each year. "The hue and cry from consumers is that there are too many different models out there already,'' adds Gray.

One more ominous cloud on the horizon is that Mr. Blackburne's racquet was "play-tested'' by Tennis magazine and subsequently panned. "We were of the opinion that it doesn't work,'' says Mr. Gray. "The ball seems to float when it's sliced. Instead of going straight over the net it forms an arc. We think purists will dismiss it out of hand.'' Mr. Patterson, however, says that if enough people get the racquet into their hands word of mouth may help propel it onto even more courts.

Mr. Blackburne knows all about the labour pains involved in giving birth to a new product. He made most of his fortune by inventing the ViniCool, a clear, acrylic wine cooling device seen on restaurant tables around the world.

Everyone seemed as cool to that idea as they were to his double-strung racquet.

"That was an 11-year struggle until finally that happened,'' he says. "We had a terrible first year and we just couldn't sell the bloody thing at all.'' Forty million units later Mr. Blackburne has sold -- according to his own estimation -- more than $400 million worth of ViniCool units.

He has since sold the global royalty rights using ViniCool funds to develop his racquet and win his case against the ITF.

Mr. Blackburne's epiphany as an inventor occurred when he was six-years-old while attending a boarding school in Surrey, England. He discovered a new way to design toilet paper.

"Eureka moments'' are how he describes the moment a new product springs into his mind. "But I had a totally barren period until I was 26.'' Before moving to Bermuda he came up with an idea for a electric gas lighter "but it wasn't actually great and it tended to burn holes in people's trousers and do males extreme damage,'' he says, followed by a trace of laughter. There was also his concept for an electric shaver.

But it's the racquet he has had most trouble unplugging from his life.

He won't consider it a success until he's recouped "my $5 million,'' he says, candidly. "It's mind-boggling and most of it has been completely non-productive. It's only been in the last four years where it's been productive. The cost of the case against the ITF was absolutely huge in terms of my time.

"The beginning of the groundswell is sort of happening and we're getting people from around the world saying `send me one or two'.'' The industry considers a racquet to be successful when it sells at least 35,000 units a year, and Mr. Blackburne is in no position to put that many on the market yet. His racquet takes an enormous amount of time to produce at a plant in Taiwan. "I can't divulge the name of the people who are producing it because this is a trade secret which even the people in the industry we don't let know.'' For now, Mr. Blackburne will bide his time and attempt to find a partner to represent him in the US. He already operates an office in London known simply as "Blackburne Racquets Europe'' but "they're not ready so much to sell tennis racquets but to field inquiries from Spain and France and Switzerland.'' He points out that "friends of a friend of Princess Diana have got a racquet into her hands, but we haven't heard if she's played with it yet.'' Blackburne Getting big name players on the tour is not necessarily the route he'd like to go right now. "We want to get the racquets out there and position them at the wealthier, good quality and older club or tournament player. That was our original positioning, but we've discovered that the racquet is successful for the young hot-shot hard hitter, the Michael Ways and so on.'' Mr. Way, Bermuda's number one player for the second straight year, has not used the racquet in tournaments because "I like the racquet I'm playing with right now.

"But I think it's a good concept. It does cut down on your mis-hits so I think he's potentially on to something. If he could market it well or if he gets someone playing with it who's well known then I think it has a chance. I don't use it in tournaments because I go through strings very quickly and I'd have to have about four of those racquets and at this stage, well they're $430 apiece, so I don't really want to make that sort of investment in it.'' Despite the setbacks, Mr. Blackburne insists his odyssey with the double-strung racquet "has been extremely satisfying, it really has''.

"When people first see the racquet they say what's it for? What does it do? And, fascinatingly, even experienced tennis players cannot immediately conceive there is no lip or frame. And this makes it a terribly difficult sell. This happened with the ViniCool, too and finally things started to happen and then, of course, there was an explosion.''