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Now here's a sport where we can be world beaters....

After the public hysteria that has greeted Bermuda's poor recent results in cricket and football, maybe we should consider making rackets the national sport.

Local boy James Stout, 23, has claimed the U.S. and British Open titles earning himself the right to play-off for the world title in the obscure sport, best described as a kind of 'extreme squash'.

Played with an old fashioned wooden racket and a golf-style ball that pings around the court at speeds of up to 170mph, rackets is not a sport for the faint-hearted.

Players have been known to get concussion from a close encounter with the ball and death on the court is not unheard of.

No wonder, then, that the sport only has 50 'serious' players worldwide.

Stout, a former squash pro, learned the game at Cheltenham College in England and currently coaches at the New York Tennis and Rackets Club.

Since giving up professional squash, where he reached the top 100 in the world, he has started to take rackets more seriously and has emerged as one of the world's top players.

He won the British Open last month, adding the title to the U.S. Open he secured last year.

Under rackets' archaic system the World Champion, currently Englishman Harry Foster, holds the title - like a boxing belt - until he is defeated in an official challenge.

The sport's governing body decides if and when a suitable challenger has emerged for the champ to put his title on the line - usually every two years.

Stout's successes have earned him that right and he will face Foster in a two-leg challenge later this year with one game in New York and the other at the Queen's Club in London.

He said: "I'm really looking forward to it. It would be amazing to be able to say I'm number one in the world."

Stout, who picked up his interest in the game as a 13-year-old schoolboy, said it was an adrenaline rush.

"I absolutely love it. It's a dangerous sport to play. You get a lot of people who will play it and are too frightened to get back out there.

"People have been hit with the ball and died from it.

"It's all about pace and hand-eye co-ordination. You have to really know where the balls going to go.

"With squash you get a really good work-out but rackets is probably a bit more exciting. If you're a good squash player it doesn't necessarily mean you'll be a good rackets player."

Rackets, played on a slate court about three times the size of a squash court, is only played in Britain and America and is particularly popular in British public schools.

Stout said he had concentrated on improving his game since moving to New York.

"I'm lucky to have a former world champion that plays here at the club and playing against him as improved my game enormously."

Stout, 23, doesn't expect to see the sport take off in Bermuda as a result of his success. And he thinks if Bermuda is looking for a new national sport then ten-pin bowling would be the best bet.[[In-content Ad]]

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