Captain Moonlight's Notebook: Race Prejudice

The sands of time appear to be running out for the egg-and-spoon race, a sports day favourite for generations of British children. Militant vegans, who shun all animal produce, including eggs, milk and even honey, say the race discriminates against their children.

'It is not fair that vegan children are being prevented from taking part in these events,' Richard Farhall, general secretary of the Vegan Society, which represents Britain's 100,000 vegans, said last week.

The society's offensive came after a vegan family reportedly complained to their son's school when he was told to bring in a hard-boiled egg for the race. For a vegan even the purchase of an egg would be unthinkable - let alone boiling it.

Trouble is, when Farhall tried to track down the unhappy family, they could not be found. 'We weren't able to discover who they were,' he says sadly, adding, however, that what was important was the principle.

'We don't want to be spoilsports,' he says. 'But as an educational charity, we would point out that in most surveys undertaken in schools cruelty to animals figures at the top of the list of children's concerns. We would ask schools to introduce substitutes for egg-and-spoon races.'

Mr Farhall will be delighted to see that the young competitor (left), pictured circa 1952, appears to be balancing an old tennis ball on her spoon.

(Photograph omitted)