Egg and spoon races were staged as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II in 2012. When was the earliest recorded reference in the Oxford English Dictionary to an egg and spoon race?
Egg-and-spoon race Egg-and-spoon race An egg-and-spoon race is a sporting event in which participants must balance an egg or similarly shaped item upon a spoon and race with it to the finishing line. At many primary schools an egg-and-spoon race is staged as part of the annual Sports Day, alongside other events such as the sack race and the three-legged race. The earliest recorded usage in the "Oxford English Dictionary" is in an article of 8 September 1894 featured in "The Daily News": "the gentlemen had a turn in the egg-and-spoon race, in which the competitors had to punt with one hand
Egg-and-spoon race well-established to be satirized in "Punch". Races were held among the staff of Trinity College, Cambridge until the 1950s. Egg-and-spoon races were held as part of the celebrations for both the 1977 Silver Jubilee and 2012 Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II. In 2012, the British Council promoted the egg-and-spoon race as a suitable event for "English days", alongside the celebration of Charles Dickens and of the Victorian era. Competitors race either individually or in teams in the manner of a relay race. If the egg falls from the spoon then competitors may be required to stop, retrieve, and reposition