REFEREE (in thick Scottish accent): "No more debating, please."

Player (mockingly): "No more what?"

Referee: "Can we please end this discussion and play on."

Player: "Well, why don't you be quiet then."

By the time world number 11 John White had finished this conversation, he had forgotten why he was so angry with the referee and was ready to get back in action ? and down to the business of beating David Palmer during Wednesday night's play at the Virtual Spectator Bermuda Masters squash tournament.

White, long known in the game for vibrant discussions with officials, has adopted a different approach in recent months ? humour. And it appears to work.

In Tuesday's upset of home favourite and number four seed David Palmer, White was feeling the pressure in the first game due to a series of mistakes by him and close calls from the officials in the very subjective sport of squash not going his way.

He responded with withering sarcasm, out and out jokes and it seemed to work for him.

Palmer, who had his problems in the later games, responded the opposite way; screaming, shouting, even spitting and punching walls ? and he was the one who lost.

"I have been working on it a lot," said White after his four-game victory courtesy of Palmer's self-destruction.

"I have spent a lot of time with Ellery Hanley, who was one of the top rugby league players, and he taught me a lot about this sort of thing. Basically the referee isn't going to change his mind, so why waste time getting more frustrated by screaming and shouting.

"You are tired anyway, so why scream and yell?

"By adopting this approach, it relaxes me and hopefully by the time I get ready for the next point I have forgotten whatever it was I got angry about in the first place.

"It has done a lot for my game and it means I can have a bit of fun with the referees. Sometimes they might give you a conduct warning if you are too cheeky, but after my remark about 'be quiet then', I saw the ref laughing, something you don't see very often."

In his defeat of Welshman Alex Gough on Monday, he asked whether they officials thought his opponent had "a third arm" after a let decision went against him and the explanation was that the ref thought Gough could reach the ball.

When he was told he was serving from the right, he then walked over to the left before asking "which right?". And then he won the next point while Gough continued to get anxious and angry, all the while berating the officials.

But it hasn't always been like this for White ? in fact he was very much the angry young man earlier in his career ? particularly before his ascent to world number one.

He also was a proponent of the wall-punching technique employed by Palmer.

"When you are angry and you start doing things like punching walls or screaming, it just makes you more angry," he continued calmly, while Palmer was busy stomping out of the building.

"That's when you start making mistakes and that's what happened to David. He was hitting the ball down the middle and losing his length because he was so frustrated.

"When I was a kid I learnt the ultimate lesson. I punched the wall of the court in frustration and I broke my hand.

"I was off the tour for six weeks, unable to do anything to do with squash because of the way I had reacted. I learnt a lot from that, I prefer my new approach and it seems to work for me."