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Wooden spoon (award)

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A 'Wooden Spoon' is a mock or real award, usually given to an individual or team which has come last in a competition, but sometimes also to runners-up. Examples range from the academic to sporting and more frivolous events.

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The academic wooden spoon at Cambridge University

The wooden spoon at Cambridge, England was originally associated with the Cambridge University Mathematical Tripos exams, and was a kind of booby prize awarded by students to their fellow student ranked lowest in the final exams.

The custom dates back at least to the early 19th century, if not before, and continued until 1909. From 1910 onwards the results have been given in alphabetical rather than score order, and so it is now impossible to tell who has come last, unless there is only one person in the lowest class.

There were actual wooden spoons which became increasingly large, and in latter years measured up to 1.5 metres long. By tradition they were dangled in a teasing way from the upstairs balcony in the Senate House in front of the lowest-ranked recipient when he came before the Vice Chancellor to receive his degree.

The last wooden spoon

The last wooden spoon was awarded to Cuthbert Lempriere Holthouse, an oarsman of the [Lady Margaret Boat Club] of St. John's College, Cambridge in 1909 at the graduation ceremony in the University's Senate House. The handle is shaped like an oar and inscribed with an epigram in Greek which may be translated as follows:

:''In Honours Mathematical
:This is the very last of all
:The Wooden Spoons which you see here
:O you who see it, shed a tear
Or in more faithful prose: "This wooden object is the last souvenir of the competitive examinations in mathematics. Look upon it, and weep."

This magnificent spoon [link] is now in the possession of St. John's College, Cambridge and another one is at the Selwyn College, Cambridge library.

The wooden wedge

There was an equivalent prize for the last-placed classicist called the "wooden wedge", first won in 1824 by Hensleigh Wedgwood (1803-91) of the Wedgwood pottery family.

The wooden spoon in sport

Rowing

"Spoons" are also awarded to Oxbridge college rowing crews who go down four places in a Bumps race, something usually to be avoided. In theory, such a crew is allowed to paint a wooden spoon in their club colours and write their names on it as a trophy of their "achievement": this is rarely done but occasionally done by the less serious "beer boats" in the May (summer) Races.

Rugby Union

How the Cambridge wooden spoon idea came to be used in Rugby union is not exactly known, but in the early years of the Six Nations Championship there were many Cambridge graduates playing, so they may have attempted to preserve the concept after the last one was awarded in 1909. It is certain in any case that the tradition first arose in Cambridge and rugby adopted and perpetuated the tradition.

Nowadays the Wooden Spoon is awarded to any team who finishes at the bottom of the table in the Six Nations held every year between England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. No physical wooden spoon exists or has ever existed in the case of rugby, however.

Such is the stigma of the award that the 'winners' will sometimes claim that the Wooden Spoon should only be held by those who win no games at all, but this achievement is properly known as a Whitewash.

Australian and New Zealand sports

The term is commonly used in Australian and New Zealand sporting competitions, most notably in the major football leagues (such as the NRL, NPC, and the AFL) to refer to the club positioned last on the league table at the end of a season.

In a 2005 AFL game, Jeff Corfe, known as "Joffa", brought in an oversized wooden spoon into the ground at a game between his side Collingwood, and fellow wooden spoon contenders Carlton. Joffa planned to bring this spoon out when it looked like Carlton were going to lose the match. Unfortunately, this plan backfired, and Carlton were comfortable winners (although they still did win the wooden spoon in 2005).

On the 1979 Grand Final day, a group of stars from the ABC's Countdown took to the field to entertain the crowd with a frivolous exhibition of football. Each star ran out in the guernsey of the team he supported, and keen Saints fan Ian "Molly" Meldrum carried with him a large wooden spoon, as the Saints had won by a clear three games that year. The incident was recently shown on music/comedy show Spicks and Specks.

AFL Wooden Spoons

# Team Spoons Years
1 St Kilda Saints 26 1897-1902 (6), 1904, 1909-10 (2), 1920, 1924, 1943, 1945, 1947-48 (2), 1952, 1954-55 (2), 1977, 1979, 1983-86 (4), 1988, 2000
2 Kangaroos 12 1926, 1929-31 (2), 1934-35 (2), 1937, 1956, 1961, 1968, 1970, 1972
3 Hawthorn Hawks 11 1925, 1927-28 (2), 1932, 1941-42 (2), 1946, 1949-50 (2), 1953, 1965
3 South Melbourne/Sydney Swans 11 1903, 1922, 1938-39 (2), 1962, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1992-94 (3)
5 Melbourne Demons 10 1905-06 (2), 1919, 1923, 1951, 1969, 1974, 1978, 1981, 1997
6 Fitzroy Lions 6 (1916*), 1936, 1963-64 (2), 1966, 1980, 1995-96 (2)
6 Richmond Tigers 6 1916-17 (2), 1960, 1987, 1989, 2004
8 Geelong Cats 5 1908, 1915, 1944, 1957-58 (2)
9 Essendon Bombers 4 1907, 1918, 1921, 1933
9 University Students 4 1911-14 (4)
9 Western Bulldogs 4 1959, 1967, 1982, 2003
12 Brisbane Bears 2 1990-91 (2)
12 Carlton Blues 2 2002, 2005
12 Collingwood Magpies 2 1976, 1999
15 Brisbane Lions 1 1998
15 Fremantle Dockers 1 2001

NRL Wooden Spoons

# Team Spoons Years

1 Western Suburbs Magpies 17 1909-10 (2), 1912-13 (2), 1916, 1933, 1940, 1942, 1953, 1955, 1971, 1983-84 (2), 1987-88 (2), 1998-99 (2)
2 Parramatta Eels 11 1947, 1952, 1956-61 (6), 1970, 1972
3 University Students 10 1921, 1923, 1927, 1929-31 (3), 1934-37 (4)
4 North Sydney Bears 9 1915, 1917, 1919, 1932, 1941, 1948, 1950-51 (2), 1979
5 Newtown Jets 8 1924-25 (2), 1928, 1939, 1968, 1976-78 (3)
6 South Sydney Rabbitohs 7 1945-46 (2), 1962, 1975, 1990, 2003-04 (2)
7 Balmain Tigers 4 1911, 1974, 1981, 1994
7 Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs 4 1943-44 (2), 1964, 2002*
7 Sydney Roosters 4 1949, 1963, 1965-66 (2)
10 Annandale Dales 3 1914, 1918, 1920
10 Gold Coast Seagulls 3 1991-93 (3)
10 Illawarra Steelers 3 1985-86 (2), 1989
10 North Queensland Cowboys 3 1995, 1997 (SL), 2000
10 Penrith Panthers 3 1973, 1980, 2001
10 St George Dragons 3 1922, 1926, 1938
16 Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks 2 1967, 1969
16 South Queensland Crushers 2 1996-97 (2)
18 Canberra Raiders 1 1982
18 Cumberland Fruitpickers 1 1908
18 Newcastle Knights 1 2005

The Wooden Spoon in British Ice Hockey

The wooden spoon has also become a tradition amongst the supporters of British ice hockey.

The tradition began in 1999 after a less than successful inaugrual season for the London Knights, who had collected just ten wins and finished comfortably bottom of the Superleague. A group of London fans subsequently purchased a large wooden spoon in order to mark this fact which was proudly displayed amongst their supporters at the Play-Off Finals weekend in Manchester.

Twelve months later the spoon returned to the Finals weekend, when it was given to a supporter of the Newcastle Riverkings, who had won just eleven times in forty-two games and had finished bottom of the Superleague by sixteen points. The tradition was born, each year at the Finals weekend the spoon is presented by the previous recipitant to a supporter of the club which finished bottom of the league. That supporter is then entrusted with it's safe keeping for the following twelve months and must bring it to the following Finals weekend in order to pass it on to a fan of the next club to have the 'honour' of receiving the reward. The tradition continued after the Superleague disbanded and was replaced by the Elite Ice Hockey League in 2003.

The Wooden Spoon is almost entirely a tradition amongst fans, though in 2005, Basingstoke Bison head coach Mark Bernard accepted it on behalf of his team. The Spoon has had engraved onto it the name of each of it's recipient clubs and remarkably has never been lost or misplaced and found its way back to the Finals weekend every year.

Rather ominiously, only three of the eight recipient clubs so far continue to exist and only the two most recent 'winners' continue to play ice hockey in the country's highest league.

The Ready Steady Cook wooden spoon

BBC's cookery gameshow Ready Steady Cook gives a decorated wooden spoon to its runners-up. It is not by any means the sort of memorabilia you might find bought and sold regularly over eBay, but holds an amount of prestige for minor celebrities in Britain who have appeared on the celebrity version of the show. (Since this wooden spoon is awarded to runners-up rather than the last-placed, it is technically a consolation prize rather than a booby prize.)

External links

 

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