James Stout is just one game away from retaining his World Rackets Champion title.

The Bermuda player hammered challenger Alex Titchener Barrett 4-0 in the first leg of their world title battle at New York Racquet and Tennis Club on Saturday night.

With each match a best of seven affair, Stout now needs to win only one match in next weekend's return leg in London to claim his title.

And if the first encounter is anything to go by, then the only question will be how long it takes for the Bermudian to win that all important game.

Stout started a little slowly in the first game before edging ahead to win it 15-11. From then he played magnificently and cruised to victory, 15-11, 15-7, 15-6, 15-9.

"I was pleased to win the first game as I didn't play as well as I could have," said Stout. "From that point onwards though I managed to dominate the match. I led 10-0, in the second game and 7-0 and 13-2 in the third game which put immense pressure on Alex. I'm looking forward to the second leg next weekend. With this lead I need to win just the one game. I'm hoping to do that as early as possible."

Meanwhile, the Bermuda, New York, New England Challenge Squash Tournament went down to the wire on Saturday, with Bermuda A just edging out New York by a single point to win the overall competition.

Level on points going into the final game, the two strongest players battled it out for the title, with Bermuda's Micah Franklin getting the better of David Uprichard.

Despite Uprichard doing his utmost to chase down every ball, he had no answer to Franklin's shot making skills.

Franklin was just too strong for Uprichard and won in three straight games for a valuable deciding point to seal the tournament for his team.

Bermuda A had started the day with a three point advantage from their previous matches. With the lowest seeded players going on court first, a very strong New York ladies group, of Camilla Lancaster, Tracy Gates and Kathy Mintz reeled off three successive wins for New York followed by an epic five game match between Sergei Parmanov (NY) and Shane McDonnell (Bda A).

McDonell struggled valiantly but eventually went down 3-2 to Malinowitz, giving the New York team a one point lead for the first time in the tournament. Their lead increased when Sergei Parmenov defeated Christian Ince 3-1.

Greg Fitzgerald, Daniel Sullivan and Peter Barrett then rattled off three wins for Bermuda "A", but Tony Prentice (Bda A) lost to Harrison Sebring (NY), which meant that the two teams were then tied overall with just one match left to play.

In Saturday's other match Bermuda B lost to New England, but still managed to pip them to third place