Harry and Wendy Ulch may have left Maple Ridge empty-handed Sunday, but they came away with a ton of experience.
The Prince George couple lost all four of its round-robin games at the B.C. Mixed Doubles Curling championship at the Golden Ears Winter Club.
"We played like we belonged," Harry said en route back to Prince George Sunday.
"It was a good time and a great experience. We'll do it again."
Mixed doubles is played over eight ends (instead of the usual 10). Each team only has six stones and one of those stones from each team is prepositioned on the centre line before every end of play.
One player delivers the first and last stones, while the other player throws the second, third and fourth stones. Both team members are also allowed to sweep. Twenty-four minutes of thinking time is allowed over the course of the game. Three minutes of playing time per end is allowed.
Ranked 12th out of 15 teams at provincials, rinks were divided into three groups of five and played round-robin games to determine who would qualify for the playoffs.
The Ulchs were edged 5-4 by Stephanie Prinse and Marcel Maure from Chilliwack in the opening draw. The game was all tied 4-4 in the sixth end.
"That game slipped away, the ice was very keen," Harry said. "It was comparable to the ice at the B.C. Scotties [that Prince George recently hosted] and it wasn't like the ice we're used to playing on at the Prince George Golf and Curling Club."
The Ulch's lost 9-2 to Norm Richard and Debbie Girard in their second game and then suffered an 8-4 loss to Jennifer Howard and Ken McArdle of New Westminster's Royal City Curling Club in the third game.
The Prince George team wrapped up the bonspiel with a 10-2 lost to Richmond's Andrew Forrest and Becky Campbell Saturday.
"The first three games could've gone either way," Harry said. "They were all good games."
Meanwhile, a pair of juvenile rinks from the Prince George Golf and Curling Club have recently qualified for the 2014 B.C. Winter Games slated for Feb. 20-23 in Mission.
Team Withey and Team Connell qualified in Zone 8 (Cariboo-North East) for the boys and girls events respectively.
Team Withey is comprised of skip Dustin Withey, third Brendan Carswell, second Coleton Vriesendorp, lead James Brown and fifth Tyler Slaney.
Team Connell is comprised of skip Alyssa Connell, third Jordan Henson, second Jennilee Slaney, lead Julianne Slaney and fifth Bailey Eberherr.
The winners of the 2014 B.C. Winter Games will compete at the Optimist U-18 International Curling championships April 2-6 in Cloverdale and Langley.
