Patrice Tucker said she is encouraged by the steady improvements she made throughout the women’s bowling competition at the Pan American Games.

Tucker finished 27th in the singles event with a score of 1,082 pins from the first block of games before adding 1,107 yesterday to give her a 12-game total of 2,189 and an average of 182.4.

“If you look at my scores from the doubles to the singles, I actually got better each time I bowled and that’s a great achievement,” said Tucker, who, along with June Dill, finished last out of 16 nations in the doubles.

“I would have liked to have done better, but I will take it. I could have done worse. These women are the best of the best.”

Tucker, who helped Bermuda win a bronze medal in the women’s team event at the NatWest International Island Games in Gibraltar this month, believes she enjoyed her best day at the Vedina Sports Complex in the San Luis district yesterday.

“I read the lanes better today [Monday] and was very consistent,” Tucker said. “All of my games were very consistent and that was a good thing.

“I’ve been able to make improvements with my hand movements, my feet adjustments, and it’s an experience I will never forget. It was a positive one.”

Tucker’s team-mate Dill finished bottom of the singles standings in 32nd position. She scored 1,005 from the first block of games before hitting 1,088 yesterday for a total of 2,093 and an average of 174.4.

Dill, a former Bermuda netball captain, described the Pan Am Games as being the “Olympics of bowling” and said she has made the most of her Lima experience.

“The Pan Am Games for us is the pinnacle,” said Dill, who celebrated her birthday on Sunday. “Wherever I go, I make the most of it, no matter what the country. I always go with the flow. I travelled to lots of places through netball and I used to have to tell the girls, ‘Listen, don’t expect what you find in Bermuda. You can’t complain, this is what it is, so make the most of it’.”

Tucker added that her only slight gripe was the absence of sunshine in the Peruvian capital, often referred to as ‘Lima the grey” because of the constant fog for much of the year.

“I’m a winter person so I don’t mind the cold too much, but it would be nice just to see a little bit of sun!” she said. “There is absolutely no sun here; it’s so gloomy.”

David Maycock and Damien Matthews, the Bermuda men’s bowlers, also finished their singles campaign yesterday.

Matthews, who was 22nd after the first block, climbed to place seventeenth with an overall score of 2,572 and an average of 214.3. Maycock, however, slipped down the standings from fifteenth to 27th with a total of 2,418 and an average of 201.5.

Maycock and Matthews placed ninth out of 16 nations in the doubles event.