Functions and try() in R

Still struggling with R, especially with error handling:

If I use:

result <- try(sqlSave(ch,df,tablename="tblTest"))

I can use:

if (class(result) != "try-error")

to check if something went wrong. No problem.

But if I use try in combination with a function it doesn't work as I expected:

 result <- try(ch<-odbcConnect("TEST"))

gives "-1" for result and "integer" for class(result)

So should I use

ch<-odbcConnect("TEST")
if (ch != -1)

and use geterrmessage() for the error message?