t 11.55am on Shrove Tuesday in the Buckinghamshire town of Olney, a church warden will command a group of 20-or-so well-primed women to toss their pancakes. This eccentric instruction will coincide with the sounding of the church shriving bell, its toll calling the townsfolk to be shriven of their sins before Lent. And with that commences a 415-yard race, whose history stretches back centuries, distinguishing it as the oldest pancake race in the world. The criteria
