As anyone who has taken part in a pancake race will know, the key is to get plenty of practice.

These competitors were determined not to be caught out on the day. When this picture was taken five days before race day, they were already perfecting the art of tossing their pancakes.

The competition took place at Wantage in 1979 and involved teams from The Corn Dollies, the traditional clog dancing group, Grove Rugby Club and Icknield Way Morris Dancers.

It was a relay race, with runners swapping over at every pub on the way.

The race was started outside the Bear Hotel by the owner, Amanda Willmott, dressed appropriately as a bear! Racing was fast and furious, with Grove Rugby Club running out winners not only of the pancake race but the subsequent beer drinking contest.

The event provided not only lots of fun but much-needed cash for an appeal for the Oxford Star Scanner Appeal - our sister paper was spearheading a campaign to raise money for a scanner at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford.

The Wantage racers were following an old-age tradition of tossing pancakes on Pancake Day.

Oxfordshire has seen plenty of madcap pancake races over the years.

The pancake tradition was born out of the religious fasting period of Lent, beginning on Ash Wednesday, when the eating of fat and meat was forbidden. The day before, housewives would use what was left in their larders to make pancakes and go to church to confess or shrive' their sins.

The church bell would ring just before noon to mark the end of shriving'. Housewives eager to reach the church in time would run through the streets still clutching their half-cooked pancakes.