Abingdon Bun Throwing – Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee

Diamond Jubilee Bun Throw
Despite the rain a very good crowd turned out for the Abingdon Bun Throwing to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabth II.
Diamond Jubilee Bun Throw
Among the Bun Throwers was the Local Member of Parliament for Abingdon, Nicola Blackwood.
Diamond Jubilee Bun Throw
The BBC had sent along a team trying out various devices to throw buns. Some looked like catapults, and others were more like canons.
Diamond Jubilee Bun Throw
I’m not sure if any of them could beat the Abingdon People’s champion who won the recent World Bun Throwing Championship. Both the canon and he were getting bun far across the Market Place.
Diamond Jubilee Bun Throw
That is a long way as you can see here.
Diamond Jubilee Bun Throw
The Mayor of Abingdon
Diamond Jubilee Bun Throw
and twenty drenched councillors threw the majority of the 6000 buns, some specially marked with 60 to mark 60 years since The Queen’s Coronation,
Diamond Jubilee Bun Throw
to the drenched people below. I hope you enjoyed the bun throwing. There was a magnificent turn out for such a rainy day.

22 thoughts on “Abingdon Bun Throwing – Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee

  1. Agnes_C

    Fantastic pictures, as usual! Bun throwing was lots of fun, if not a little wet. Throwers were excellent this year, as well as James May and crew. Three buns ended up on the roof of New Look, so pretty impressive! Proms were excellent, but we decided to break halfway through to find some dinner – it was just too wet for a picnic.

    Reply
  2. Isabel

    What a wonderful bun throw – I think the best I’ve seen in my forty odd years living in Abingdon. Rain or no rain it really was a fabulous day for the people of Abingdon. I’m sure that goes for our contingent of visitors from another Abingdon, in Virginia, USA.

    Reply
  3. Cassandra

    Fab-u-lous!!!!!! A great event on a great day. Despite all of the moans of the past few days the people of Abingdon really showed everyone how to have a good time!!!

    Reply
  4. Iain

    Rain rather than reign yesterday Peter – great fun though. Weather looking a bit more promising for this evening’s concert

    Reply
  5. Tony

    I have enjoyed reading all the Jubilee posts!
    God Save the Queen!
    BBC America had a Royal Family day on TV….lots of tea and biscuits for me
    Well done Abingdon!

    Reply
  6. Richard Gottfried

    Another brilliant Bun Throwing 🙂

    Even with the horrendous weather the turnout was brilliant and we managed to catch and scramble a fair few too.

    Great photos of a great event.

    Reply
  7. Monica Lovatt

    Thank you Richard for your account of the bun throwing. I have thrown buns a few times but this was the best and most fun despite the drenching rain. The crowd was in good spirits and with James May and the church bells ringing the atmosphere was terrific.
    It was a privilege to carry on this Abingon tradition to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of HM The Queen.

    Keep up your interesting blog.

    Thanks also go to Alastair for his coverageof the Jubilee weekend – required reading for all!

    Monica Lovatt. Mayor of Abingdon-on-Thames.

    Reply
  8. kate parry

    I can not believe that there is nothing written about the world bun throwing champion beating all three of james mays machines i thought that was the reason he made these machines to try and beat him and get the buns to the back of the market square. Well it was in fact danny parry getting them to the back and on the roofs james mays machines were just about getting them to the middle of the crowd. Speaking on behalf of myself and fellow bun catchers!

    Reply
  9. Pat

    I know two little boys who went to the bun throwing and didn’t get any buns. It would have been really good if those who caught so many could have shared them with the children round them.

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  10. Suzieh

    I was there with a group of teenagers, we caught loads and on the way home we were giving them away to any of the kids we saw looking emptyhanded, we must have given away over half of what we caught…..and I have to say that it was our teenagers who were encouraging the giving away of the buns. It was a wet but wondeful weekend.

    Reply
  11. Iain

    I was standing next to Danny and can confirm his buns definitely went the furthest (much further than mine). James May’s last machine was pretty good too though. And got quite a volume of buns to the back of the crowd quite quickly.

    Real prize goes to everyone who was standing in the rain catching. Well done all – definitely Abingdon at its best!

    Reply
  12. James Lovatt

    I thought the rain kind of added to the messy fun of he occasion. I was outside throwing buns which got Truely pelted.

    It was clear through the celebration that this was not really about the Queen but about Britain and its communities, reminding us thy exist and how special they are. The atmosphere at this event was such fun that I think it showed what kind of community Abingdon has. we should make more of it and have a lot more fun together!!

    Reply
  13. hester

    We are rightly proud of our bun-throwing tradition but for eccentricity we might be outdone by Ieper (Ypres) in Belgium where we were startled to find a tradition of throwing cats. Googled it when we got home and were relieved to discover that they no longer use real ones!

    Reply
  14. Jimbo

    Just to clarify this was all obviously for the queen but what this queen does paricularly well is represent a nation and it’s people rather than herself as a person, something that you would never get from a president.

    Reply
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