Bermuda's latest sporting hero, Antoine Jones, tumbled off cloud nine yesterday, not so much crashing back to earth but returning with a gentle thud.

After all, tenth place in the first ever tenpin bowling singles final of a Commonwealth Games isn't to be sneezed at.

Yet after a memorable week in which the portly left-hander struck silver with men's doubles partner Conrad Lister and continued to light up the lanes in the mixed doubles here at the Pyramid Bowl outside Kuala Lumpur, the 36-year-old veteran confessed to feeling slightly let down.

Entering the day in seventh position overall, with the pinfall from Tuesday's qualifying round carried over into the final, Jones felt he had every chance of moving into contention.

But with the last stage of this tournament decided on match-play with each of the 15 qualifiers playing the other and a 10-pin bonus added to the winner's total pinfall, the Bermudian was left to rue a dreadful start in which he dropped three of his first four games.

Bermuda's women's singles finalist, Dianne (Bobbie) Ingham, suffered similarly as she lost all but one of her 15 games, finishing the day as she had begun it, in 13th place.

"I'm very disappointed,'' admitted Jones, whose full-time job as a mechanic at Warwick Bowl means he spends much of his life on the lanes. "I thought I could get back into a medal position, but today I just didn't carry the corner pins. Earlier in the week they were falling, today they just stood up and that cost me.

"I can't even say it was the poor start. Even down the stretch I didn't execute as well as I should have.

"But in the end 10th place, ninth, fifth... who cares? There's no medal for that.'' Amid scenes of unrestrained jubilation among a capacity crowd who cheered every move from their hometown hero Kenny Ang, the eventual gold medallist, Jones rarely looked like living up to his billing of tournament dark horse, a tag attributed by TV analysts.

He lost nine of his 15 games and on the day averaged under 200, well below the standard he had set in both doubles events and the singles qualifying.

And while Canada's Warren Rennox came from ninth at the start of the day to grab the bronze behind his silver medal-winning compatriot Bill Rowe, Jones never showed any signs of digging himself out of the hole.

Games of 184, 174 and 156 saw him slump to a low of 13th, and although he recovered with four plus-200 games (227, 219, 246 and 216) by that time the leaders had disappeared over the horizon.

His final pinfall of 5,426 was 620 shy of Ang's winning total (6,046).

"The lanes changed drastically today. I made some moves but the pins just didn't fall,'' added Jones, who insisted he and Lister's second place in the doubles shouldn't have been considered a major upset.

"Conrad was bowling bril Turn to Page 27 Jones comes back down to earth liantly coming into these Games. And I go abroad to tournaments all the time, it's just that you guys (in the media) don't follow us.

"I finished third in a big event in June with Joan Burgess. We lost out by just 16 pins. And we'd already qualified for next year's Pan-Am Games before we came here.'' Like Jones, Ingham failed to find her rhythm yesterday in a final which saw Australian Cara Honeychurch collect her third gold of the week.

Honeychurch finished with a 6,406 pinfall, more than 370 ahead of her closest rival, and an average of 241.6 per game, better than even the men's gold medallist, who averaged 228.31.

Ingham recorded a total pinfall of 4,972.

Elsewhere, all but one of Bermuda's swimmers bowed out of these Games yesterday.

Stephen Fahy, who hopes to have saved his best for last when he competes in his speciality, the 200 metres individual medley today, led an Island trio in the 50m freestyle sprint, clocking 24.25 seconds for second place in heat three.

That was just one place ahead of Stephen Troake who followed in 24.77 after Matthew Hammond had won a three-man opening heat in 25.90. But as has been the case in all but the freestyle relay, those times failed to earn a place in the evening finals.

Of 41 competitors who entered the 50 free, Fahy's time was ranked 20th, Troake's 27th and Hammond's 39th.

Earlier Alicia Mullan finished sixth and last in her 200 IM heat, clocking 2:42.40.

At the shooting range in Langwaki, Sinclair Raynor positioned himself in 26th spot and Walter Trott in 41st after the first stage of the Open fullbore rifle. Both will be back on the range for the second stage today.

And also returning to action today will be squash players Nick Kyme and Tommy Sherratt as they face Australians David Palmer and Paul Price, and then Kiwis Paul Steel and Daniel Sharplin in the first round of the rarely played men's doubles.

It was Palmer who defeated Kyme in straight games in the first round of the singles.

While Bermuda's duo aren't to be expected to progress from the round robin, they are confident of registering at least one win -- against Zambia -- in their final match.

GAMES RESULTS YESTERDAY SHOOTING: Fullbore rifle stage one -- Sinclair Raynor, 26th (100 pts); Walter Trott, 41st (92).

SWIMMING: Women's 200m IM -- Alicia Mullan, 2:42.40 (sixth in heat). Men's 50m freestyle -- Stephen Fahy, 24.25 (2nd in heat); Stephen Troake, 24.77 (3rd in heat); Matthew Hammond, 25.90 (1st in heat).

TENPIN BOWLING: Men's singles final -- Antoine Jones, 10th (5,426 pinfall over 26 games including qualifying). Women's singles final -- Dianne (Bobbie) Ingham, 13th (4,972 over 26 games including qualifying).

TODAY'S SCHEDULE SHOOTING: Fullbore rifle stage two (Sinclair Raynor, Walter Trott).

SQUASH: Men's doubles -- Nick Kyme/Tommy Sherratt (Bermuda) v David Palmer/Paul Price (Australia); Kyme/Sherratt v Paul Steel/Daniel Sharplin (NZ).

SWIMMING: Men's 200m IM (Stephen Fahy). STROKE PLAY -- Swimmers in the men's 100m backstroke final leap off the blocks. Canadian Mark Versfeld finished with gold, ahead of Joshua Watson of Australia and Chris Renaud of Canada.

STROKE PLAY -- Swimmers in the men's 100m backstroke final leap off the blocks. Canadian Mark Versfeld finished with gold, ahead of Joshua Watson of Australia and Chris Renaud of Canada.

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