Bermuda bowlers Damien Matthews and David Maycock recovered after a poor start to claim a ninth-place finish in the men’s doubles event at the Pan American Games.

The pair found themselves in twelfth position of out 16 nations with a total of 2,418 pins after the first block of six games on Friday, but climbed three places after a much-improved display on Saturday.

Matthews, who struggled for consistency on day one, made the necessary adjustments and contributed 2,570 to Bermuda’s overall total of 5,200, with Maycock adding a solid 2,630.

Puerto Rico’s team of Cristian Azcona and Jean Perez won with 5,816, with the United States team of Jabok Butturff and Nicholas Pate claiming silver (5,545) and Colombia’s Manuel Otalora and Alfredo Quintana taking bronze (5515).

“In the doubles competition we didn’t match up the lanes right [on Friday], Maycock said.

“We went back [to the Athletes’ Village], sat down and talked about it.

“We made some surface changes to the bowling balls and came out the next day and everything clicked.

“Damien [a left-handed bowler] is on the left side so he’s going to have a different look from me. He made a zone, I made a zone to the right and all the pins fell away.”

Matthews and Maycock returned to action in the individual competition at the Videna Sports Complex in the San Luis district yesterday.

Maycock is fifteenth out of 32 competitors after the first block and believes a top-eight finish, which would qualify him for the round-robin round, is still within reach.

“I need to come out [today] and put the pedal to the mettle in the first three games and make sure I’m firing on all cylinders,” said Maycock, who shot a score of 1,315.

“I’ve got to make my spares; I missed a lot of them. You’ve got to stay on the moves [of the lanes] because if you don’t this house will leave you. You’ve got the best of the best here and these guys can strike. I’m feeling confident that I can reach the top eight.”

Matthews, who is in 22nd place, said he did not feel his score of 1,234 reflected how well he played.

“My performance was very good, but I just didn’t get the results that I expected,” Matthews said.

‘My pin count wasn’t where it should have been. I had a few missed spares, but I’m not too far behind. I’m about 130 pins out of the cut. I’ll be looking to make one strong push tomorrow [today].

“I was trying to make the adjustments, but I was leaving a lot of corner pins. I’ll just have to work on things and figure out what I need to do.

“In terms of pin counts, [a top eight] is still achievable. I just need to dig deep and make the big shots.”

Jean Perez, of Puerto Rico, leads with a total of 1,521, which included a perfect game.

Bermuda women’s bowlers, June Dill and Patrice Tucker, started their first block of six games in the singles competition yesterday. Tucker is in 27th place with a score of 1,082 while Dill is 32nd with 1,005.

Dill and Tucker finished last out of 16 nations in the doubles competition on Saturday with a total score of 3,941. Dill scored 1,924 and Tucker hit 2,017