Despite falling short of a junior national curling championship, Dawson Creek’s Sanjay Bowry says that playing against Canada’s best curlers was a memory he’ll soon not forget.

“I am happy to have had the opportunity to go and play with three great guys and an awesome coach,” Bowry said about seconding Team B.C. at the M&M Meat Shops Junior Curling Championship, which wrapped up in Fort McMurray, Alta. last Sunday.

Team B.C., made up of Langley’s Tyler Klymchuk (skip), Victoria’s Corey Chester (third), Bowry (second) and Tsawwassen’s Rhys Gamache (lead), placed seventh overall in the 14-rink field.

After a 3-0 start in the preliminaries, B.C. dropped their next three round-robin matchups to finish in the fourth spot of Pool A; good enough, however, to advance them to the championship round where they would play for a place in the playoffs.

With accumulative records from both preliminaries and the championship round used to determine the four finalists for playoffs, B.C. would have needed four straight wins but ended the round at 1-3.

“It was great competing there, as a team we did not play our absolute best curling but I do believe we played well enough to have a bit better record,” said Bowry. “We were playing the big boys game all week so I mean it's a matter of a shot here or there. Credit to our competition they played great.”

“When we advanced [past preliminaries], obviously you play harder teams and we just were not on the right side of the house, so to speak.”

B.C. edged Québec 8-5 in the second round robin but dropped games to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and eventual champions Manitoba.

Skipped by Matt Dunstone, Manitoba topped Alberta’s Thomas Scoffin 4-3 in the finals on Feb. 9.

As for Bowry, now a first-year student at University of Victoria who joined the Klymchuk rink last spring, tournament officials identified him for his sportsmanship, honouring him with the Fair Play Award among those that curl second.