Bermuda's tenpin bowlers will go to the Pan-Am Games in Canada with a stronger team than the one which brought home silver from the Commonwealth Games last year, according to one of the medal heroes, Conrad Lister.

The Island will take eight bowlers to Winnipeg this month, rather than the four they took to Kuala Lumpur last September, when Lister and Antoine Jones earned Bermuda's third ever Commonwealth medal placing.

But it is the presence of Dean Lightbourn, who missed out on Malaysia because of other commitments, which makes Lister quietly confident of more success this time around.

"Having Dean Lightbourn in your team is like having Michael Jordan -- he's a world class player in our sport,'' said Lister.

"He proves it every time he goes overseas. He's just come back from Las Vegas, where he reached the fourth round in a big tournament. That means he made the cut and probably reached the last 30 out of about 1,000 top amateurs.'' Lightbourn finished last season as the number one ranked player on the Island, with a game average of 215. And his form this summer has been equally impressive.

Jones and Lister caused a sensation when they struck silver last year, but Lister claimed their success had not surprised him.

"We always felt we could compete with the top players in the amateur ranks, because we had a lot of experience in tournaments across the world,'' he said.

Jones and Lister raised the profile of tenpin bowling with their medals, even more so when they were named joint Athletes of the Year. Jones, who works at Warwick Lanes, said he had noticed the effects.

"This place is always crowded,'' said Jones. "Even in the summer, more just keep coming in.'' Lister agreed and said even regular players had worked harder at their game since Malaysia. "Bowlers are putting in more time practising -- everybody wants a chance to achieve what Antoine and I have done,'' he said.

Jones, Lister and Lightbourn will be joined in the Pan-Am team by Steven Riley, June Dill, Pat Price, Dianne (Bobbie) Ingham and Darnell Raynor.

Four-member men and women's teams will play three sets of six games each, with the best two men and women from each country going through to the Masters roll-off.

Jones was remaining coy about the team's chances. "I'm not saying anything until I see the conditions,'' he said. "How they oil the lanes can make a lot of difference.'' Though all lanes are the same, oil patterns on their surfaces are different.

At Warwick Lanes, the team practises on seven different oil patterns to give them as varied an experience as possible.

The women have just as good a chance of bringing home a medal as the men, according to Ingham.

"Everybody is in peak form, we are practising two or three times a week and we are very much capable of bringing home a medal,'' said Ingham.

For Ingham, a member of last year's Commonwealth Games team, representing Bermuda overseas is nothing new. She has bowled in Mexico, Singapore, Scotland and Canada.

Despite her wealth of experience, Ingham admitted that the prospect of Winnipeg still caused a few butterflies in the stomach.

"I think we all get a bit nervous, but just before the games you realise what you have to do and you just get on with it,'' said Ingham.

"The thing is not to get intimidated by the other bowlers. I feel in pretty good form at the moment, but there's always room for improvement.'' Ingham has teamed up with Dill, Pitt and Raynor at many tournaments and said there was a good team spirit.

"If I wasn't into bowling, I probably wouldn't have travelled so much. And that, and the fact that the bowling federations are trying to get the sport into the Olympics should make bowling attractive to young people,'' added Ingham.

Ladies of the lanes: Bermuda's women's bowling team (left to right) Darnell Raynor, Pat Price, Bobbie Ingham and June Dill hope to bring home a medal from the Pan Am Games.