Bermuda's squash duo of James Stout and Nick Kyme battled and argued their way to a fifth place finish at the CAC Games.

The Islanders beat Jamaica's Steven Smith and Warren Burrowes 2-1 in El Salvador to secure the placing after losing by the same score in their first match to Colombia's top pairing of Bernado Samper and Santiago Montoya - the eventual winners.

But they had to take on the tournament officials as well as their rivals to do it.

Colombia were the pre-tournament favourites and Samper and Montoya had been seeded two and three respectively in the men's individual event, making the draw particularly harsh for the Stout and Kyme.

Bermuda started well, tying at four-all in the first game, then falling behind 7-4 on a stroke against Stout, followed by a stroke against Kyme and an error by same player.

However, they recovered to lead 9-7 on five consecutive errors by the Colombians.

At 10-8 it looked as if the game was going the Bermudians' way but it was not to be. From then on they won only one point to the Colombians' seven on a combination of strokes being awarded against them and their own errors.

The second game was neck and neck nail-biting squash, the teams being tied at four-all, seven-all, ten-all, 11-all and 12-all.

Bermuda then took a hold of the game moving to 14-12 up before Stout's tinned shot brought their rivals back to within a point. At 14-12, Stout tinned a cross-court drop to make it 14-13 to Bermuda. Montoya then asked for a let only to have it refused and Bermuda took the game 15-13 to level the match.

The deciding game saw Colombia rush to a 6-1 lead until Bermuda recovered to 7-5.

The game was increasingly marred by appeals against refereeing decisions by the Bermuda players.

The referee was awarding penalty points for obstruction, much the same as is done in singles squash, and the Bermudians challenged many of the decisions, unsurprisingly, to no effect.

Ultimately, the consequent loss of concentration contributed to their demise and Colombia ran out comfortable winners 15-8.

"It was a disappointing result as the James and Nick had demonstrated in the first two games that they were more than equal to the task of beating Colombia," said Bermuda's director of squash Ross Triffitt.

In the play-off for fifth and sixth position against Jamaica it seemed as if the lessons of the previous match had not been learned with further challenges being made to the referee's authority.

Play was held up at four-all when the Bermudians appealed a let decision but they moved to 7-4 on an error by Smith, a winning straight lob by Stout and a cross-court drop by Stout.

The Jamaicans' fortunes improved as Stout made three consecutive unforced errors, two on volley drops.

Stout, playing against Burrowes in the left court while Kyme was against Smith in the right court, showed tremendous patience and maturity in his rallies with the Jamaican content to play straight drives to length.

At 12-7 Bermuda were in control, but Jamaica recovered to 12-13 down after Stout had two lets refused and he and Kyme both tinned drop shots. The winning point of the game came when the referee awarded a stroke against Burrowes.

In the second game Bermuda led 12-9 and looked in control then errors took Jamaica to 14-13.

Kyme held a shot and asked for a let and but when it was refused Jamaica took the game 15-13.

That appeared to unsettle Kyme and he continued to argue with the referee after the other players had left the court.

In the deciding game the Bermudians were in control, yet the practice of challenging the referee's decisions continued.

Bermuda were 9-3 up then 13-7 but at 13-8, three consecutive rallies ended in lets, two of which the Bermudians disputed searching for strokes. Ultimately, Bermuda won the point when Burrowes tinned a drop shot and another error by Burrowes at 14-10 gave them the match and fifth place.

Play begins in the team event today.