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Flin Flon Alive With Pride This information was collected by the late Mrs. Phyllis (Peter) Hume and loaned to us by Doreen Hume-McKenna. The third annual Automobile Bonspiel was held in Nipawin in January 1949. It was a two week bonspiel and all the games were twelve ends. It was billed as the "World's Premier Curling Classic." The prize was four 1949 brand spankin' new Hudson cars. There were 420 visiting curlers who participated. Until 1947, generally the only people who made the tiring journey to Nipawin were grain buyers, lumbermen and traveling salesmen. That was about to change when Cliff McDonald, a garage owner/car dealer and president of the Nipawin Curling Club, got an idea on how to bring people to his community Ð an Automobile Bonspiel. At this point Nipawin only had a two-sheet curling rink, so McDonald arranged for debentures to be sold to the citizens of the community as well as farmers in the surrounding area. In the fall of 1946, a $20,000, six-sheet curling rink was built adjoining the hockey arena, which at bonspiel time was also transformed into a five-sheet curling rink. Local merchants contributed valuable prizes in addition to the main attraction of the four brand new cars, which were a total value of $20,000 at the time. The effect of the wide publicity of the Automobile Bonspiel throughout the West and into the U.S. resulted in 101 teams, each paying an entry fee of $100, invading the small community for two weeks in January 1947. The three local hotels were overflowing with guests and the local citizens opened their homes and spare beds. The success of the spiel continued in 1948 and 1949 with other communities coming on board to offer prizes to attract curlers and visitors to watch what had become a great spectator sport. The event included a visitor's parade up Nipawin's First Avenue and Centre Street headed by a 20-piece band. A special train from Prince Albert brought over 400 people to the town on a "goodwill" mission during the second week of the spiel in 1949. One of the many teams from Flin Flon was Pete Hume's rink of Norm Snyder, Jim Cook and Harold Vance. They did not reach the fours in the #1 event at the Nipawin spiel because Robertson of the home club beat them after they had reached the eights in the Main Event, winning four straight. However, all was not lost because even the Flin Flon team now entered the #2 event, as the rules called for a rink not reaching the four in the #1 event to drop to #2, and if they lose again, they dropped to #3. Then if they lost the #3 event, they would drop to the consolation event and become out of play for the cars. Only rinks reaching the fours in one of the first three events qualified to enter the round robin playoff for the vehicles. Three Flin Flon teams were in the third event. They were Eddie Longmore's team, Don Dow's team and Pete Hume's team, with Alex Imrie's team and Ted Sparling's team still alive in the consolation event. Hume made the fours by defeating the Turner team of Codette, Sask 9-6. In other games Moir of Nipawin defeated Don Dow, of Flin Flon 14-4 in the third event. In the consolation, Herd from Benito put Sparling of Flin Flon, out of the bonspiel in a close one 9-8, and Longmore of Flin Flon defeated and thus eliminated his club mate Dow of Flin Flon, 12-7. As the frost left the ice, Pete Hume's team qualified for the best of three final in Nipawin by winning his round robin group series in five straight. After beating Dr. McKellar of Carlyle 9-4, this left Hume and Willard Cleveland of Fairlight, Sask., the only unbeaten teams in the round robin. The ears of every curling fan in Flin Flon were tuned to the radio as Hume and Cleveland played for the best of three and the 1949 Hudson cars. The teams were tied 7-7 after the regulation 12 ends, with Hume stealing one in the 13th to win the first game. However, Cleveland came back and defeated Hume 11-6 in the second game, forcing a third and final game. The curling rink was jammed with spectators for all the games, but there wasn't a spare spot anywhere for the final game. Hume overcame an early lead by Cleveland when in the ninth end. Don Sauter, skipping the Fairlight team, and Cleveland, who played third, both missed their shots and Hume capitalized by picking up two and the 8-6 lead. Hume stole another one in the tenth. Cleveland got one in the eleventh and stole one in the twelfth but needed two to tie the game. Hume had made a spectacular double allowing, Cleveland only one point and Hume won 9-8. Flin Flon went berserk! Hume's win gave Manitoba a clean sweep of the three car spiels with Howard Wood and Grant Wilcox, both from Winnipeg, having won in 1947 and '48 respectively. There was a declaration in Flin Flon that the town "shut down for one hour" to meet the train when the curlers came home. Turn up people did! A reception was hosted by the town council, Flin Flon Community Club as well as the Flin Flon and Ross Lake curling clubs. Mayor Cyril Stevenson welcomed the curlers home and on behalf of the people of Flin Flon presented each curler with 1949 license plates for their new cars. The Kinsmen Club erected a huge "Welcome Home" sign and hung it on the Flin Flon Hotel. Many local businesses decorated their windows for the home coming. Claude Joyce, a teacher at Hapnot Collegiate, even wrote a poem in tribute to the curlers. Flin Flon was alive with pride. In 1951 Pete Hume, with the same rink, repeated the success andÊwon the carspiel again, with the biggest crowd ever to watch the bonspiel. The last autospiel was held in 1954. Due to declining entries, only 61 rinks competed that year. The Extra End runs Wednesdays. Gail can be reached at 687-3344.
