In rugby union's Six Nations Championship, the wooden spoon is a metaphorical award won by the team finishing in last place, or alternatively by a team that loses all its games. There are five known wooden spoons in private hands. John's (the last one, dating from 1909), Selwyn's (1906), Emmanuel's (1889) and Corpus Christi's (18) in its library to mark the centenary of the "awarding" of the last spoon of all. John's College held an exhibition of the five surviving wooden spoons in College hands, from St. John's College, with an earlier version being kept at the Selwyn College Library. The last spoon to be awarded is now in the possession of St. This wooden object is the last souvenir of the competitive examinations in mathematics. The handle is shaped like an oar and inscribed with an epigram in Greek which may be translated as follows: 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. 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. The custom dates back at least to the late 18th century, being recorded in 1803, and continued until 1909. : 284 In the 1860s about three-quarters of the roughly 400 candidates did not score enough to be awarded honours, and were known as poll men. Students unfortunate enough to place below the wooden spoon, by achieving only an Ordinary degree, were given a variety of names depending on their number. In contrast, the highest-scoring male student was named the " senior wrangler". 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. 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 spoons themselves, actually made of wood, grew larger, and in latter years measured up to five feet long. The solid honours of the Wooden Spoon : 98 Whose value all can feel, the weak, the wise ĭisplays in triumph his distinguish'd boon, Wooden spoon at Selwyn College, CambridgeĪnd while he lives, he wields the boasted prize