Wooden spoon (award)

Wooden spoon at the University of Cambridge

The wooden spoon was presented originally at the University of Cambridge as a booby prize awarded by the students to the person who achieved the lowest exam marks but still earned a third-class degree (a junior optime) in the Mathematical Tripos. The term "wooden spoon" or simply "the spoon" was also applied to the recipient, and the prize became quite notorious:

And while he lives, he wields the boasted prize Whose value all can feel, the weak, the wise; Displays in triumph his distinguish'd boon, The solid honours of the Wooden Spoon

The spoons themselves, actually made of wood, grew larger, and in latter years measured up to five feet long. By tradition, they were dangled in a teasing way from the upstairs balcony in the Senate House, in front of the recipient as he came before the Vice-Chancellor to receive his degree, at least until 1875 when the practice was specifically banned by the university.

The lowest placed students earning a second-class (senior optime) or first-class degree (wrangler) were sometimes known as the "silver spoon" and "golden spoon" respectively.

The custom dates back at least to the late 18th century, being recorded in 1803, 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.

Last award

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:

Alternatively:

The last spoon to be awarded is now in the possession of St John's College, Cambridge, with an earlier version being kept at the Selwyn College Library. From 8 June 2009 to 26 June 2009, St John's College held an exhibition of the five surviving wooden spoons in College hands, from St John's (the last one, dating from 1909), Selwyn's (1906), There are five known wooden spoons in private hands.

In sport

Rugby union ===

In rugby union's Six Nations Championship, the wooden spoon is a metaphorical award won by the team finishing in last place. In addition, if a team loses all its matches it is also said to have been "whitewashed". In 1892, Rugby Football, by Rev. F. Marshall explains, "all three matches being lost, Wales thus earned the “wooden spoon” of International football for this season". In 1894, the South Wales Daily Post remarked that within the Home Nations Championships the Ireland-Wales match has been to decide which team should be recipient of the ignominious Wooden Spoon.

Australian and New Zealand sports

The term is commonly used in Australian and New Zealand sporting competitions, most notably in the major Australian rules, soccer, rugby league and rugby union leagues (such as the AFL, the A-League, NRL, Super Rugby and ITM Cup) and refers to the club positioned last on the league table at the end of the season.

Games between teams 'competing' for the wooden spoon have recently become referred to as 'Spoon Bowls', a play on the NFL's Super Bowl.

VFL/AFL wooden spoons

Main article: List of Australian Football League wooden spoons

National Rugby League

Main article: Australian rugby league wooden spooners

Big Bash League (cricket)

Main article: Big Bash League#Wooden Spoons

Suncorp Super Netball

In the 2017 and 2018 Suncorp Super Netball seasons, the Adelaide Thunderbirds claimed the wooden spoon. In the latter year, they lost all fourteen of their regular season matches, resulting in Dan Ryan being sacked as the club's coach.

The Queensland Firebirds, Collingwood Magpies and Melbourne Vixens have won the past three wooden spoons, with the Vixens the most recent recipient of the award.

Major League Soccer

In Canada and the United States' men's Major League Soccer, the last place team in the overall standings is generally considered as the "wooden spoon champion". However, unlike other Wooden Spoon awards, there is a physical "trophy" for the award. Before the start of the 2016 MLS season, the Independent Supporters Council decided to create an actual official "trophy" for the lowest place team in the league, as a complement to the Supporters' Shield which the ISC also manages. The trophy is passed to the "winning" team at the annual ISC general meeting, and the holders of the Spoon must possess the spoon for the entire following season. At the end of the year, every group awarded the Wooden Spoon are allowed to do what they will with the trophy, including refusing to display it.

The Chicago Fire were the "winner" of the inaugural 2015 wooden spoon trophy and their supporters had the responsibility of creating the first spoon. The award was christened the Andrew Hauptman Memorial Wooden Spoon by Chicago Fire supporters as a protest against the team's then-owner, Andrew Hauptman (2007–2019). The spoon was renamed in 2017 to the Anthony Precourt Memorial Wooden Spoon, after the then-owner of the Columbus Crew, who at the time was attempting to move the franchise to Austin.

Two teams hold the league record for most spoon "wins" overall, the San Jose Earthquakes (1997, 2000, 2008, 2018 and 2024), and D.C. United (2002, 2010, 2013, 2022, and 2025). In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the wooden spoon was not officially awarded following the 2020 MLS season (which would have been won by FC Cincinnati), as the ISC board "felt it was inappropriate to offer such a distinction for shortened and geographically-limited seasons". The current spoon holders are D.C. United (2025).

Canadian Premier League

The Canadian Premier League has an unofficial trophy, awarded to the team that finishes with the fewest points at the end of the regular season. The most recent recipient are Vancouver FC as of the 2025 season.{{cite web|url=https://www.canpl.ca/standings|title=Canadian Premier League|website=www.canpl.ca/standings |access-date=13 October 2025}}

Oxford and Cambridge rowing

In the Cambridge and Oxford bumps races, a crew who get bumped each day (thus moving down four places) are awarded spoons. This is probably related to the use of wooden spoons as a booby prize in the University of Cambridge Mathematical Tripos.

Tennis

A wooden spoon, also known as the "anti-slam", is sometimes spoken about in tennis. It is described as the worst possible outcome in a tournament, won by the player who is defeated in the first round by a player who is defeated in the second round, by a player who is defeated in the third round and so forth, until the final of the tournament.

Greg Rusedski (1994 and 1995 US Open, 2006 Wimbledon Championships), Nicolás Lapentti (1996 French Open, 1997 and 2009 Wimbledon Championships) and Julien Benneteau (2014 and 2016 US Open, 2016 French Open) have claimed three wooden spoons throughout their career.

References

References

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2. (2012). "The History of Universities XXVI/1".
3. A Brace of Cantabs. (pseudonym). (1824). "Gradus ad Cantabrigiam". J. Hearne.
4. Socius. (1823). "The Cambridge Tart". Smith.
5. Stephen J. Cowley. "Cambridge Mathematical Tripos: Wooden Spoons".
6. Jonathan Holmes. (December 2017). "Queens' College Cambridge: 'A Queens' Wooden Spoon'".
7. Galton, Francis. (1869). "Hereditary Genius-An Enquiry into its Laws and Consequences".
8. (May 2023). "University of Cambridge Exhibitions: "In honours mathematical, the very last of all: Cambridge Wooden Spoons"".
9. [[Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Emmanuel]]'s (1889) and [[Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. Corpus Christi]]'s (1895 and 1907) in its library to mark the centenary of the "awarding" of the last spoon of all.http://www.joh.cam.ac.uk/cms_misc/media/library/spoonsbooklet.pdf{{dead link. (December 2017)
10. (16 March 2024). "Six Nations: Wales look to avoid the Wooden Spoon - but what is it?". BBC.
11. ''Rugby Football (Football, the rugby union game)'', by Rev. F. Marshall with special chapters by A. G. Guillemard, G. Rowland Hill, H. Vassall, Arthur Budd, H. H. Almond, LL.D., C. B. H. Marriott, and W. Cail, etc. Cassell & Company, Limited. Londres, Paris and Melbourne.
12. page 258 of the book
13. Godwin, Terry. (1984). "The International Rugby Championship 1883–1893". Willow Books.
14. Partland, Warren. (26 June 2018). "Dan Ryan loses coaching job at Adelaide Thunderbirds". Adelaide Now.
15. Monteverde, Marco. (8 October 2020). "Super Netball: Roselee Jencke walks away from Queensland Firebirds after 11 years as coach". news.com.au.
16. Leonard, Owen. (1 May 2021). "Lightning strike down Pies in classy start to season". The Australian.
17. (2 August 2021). "Thunderbirds avoid wooden spoon". Super Netball.
18. Boehm, Charles. (1 October 2016). "Jobs, playoffs, wooden spoons and a Shield: What's at stake in MLS Week 30". MLSsoccer.com.
19. Hernandez, Cesar. (October 22, 2024). "The MLS trophy nobody wants: How The Wooden Spoon came to be". [[ESPN]].
20. "ISC Creates Wooden Spoon Award". Independent Supporters Council.
21. (16 October 2020). "ISC doesn't intend on 'awarding' any Wooden Spoons to teams/groups from any leagues for the 2020 season".