We open on the Maid, putting bunting on the trees, which the narrator approves of. The Princess puts on her dress (while wearing a pink headband) and tells Scruff he can't play as he's a dog. The narrator asks if the bunting is due to it being a special occasion, and the Princess says that it is Sports Day.
Outside, the General, King, and Princess volunteer to be the captains of their teams. The General chooses the Maid to be on his team, the King chooses the Queen, and the Princess chooses the Admiral via "Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Mo". She regrets this decision and tries to choose another person, but the General chooses the Prime Minister and the King the Gardener. The Princess tries to put the Chef on her team, but he's too busy being the referee, so she reluctantly lets Scruff join.
The first race is the Egg and Spoon race, which the Princess technically wins (as in, she's the first one to the finish line), but her team loses because the Admiral is too slow and Scruff drops, then breaks, his egg. The winning team is the General's.
The next event is the relay race, and things don't go well for the Princess's team. First, her headband goes over her eyes, then she tries to cheat by not passing the baton, but gets puffed out. The King's team wins.
This makes the Princess sad. The narrator tries to cheer her up by suggesting that you don't need to win to have fun, but this falls flat when the Princess observes her teammates looking sad too.
They perk up when the next event happens, which is throwing a Wellington boot. Princess selects Scruff to throw his, the King selects the Queen, and the General does it himself. The Queen does a good throw, the General does a pretty bad throw, and Scruff wins by a few centimetres.
The next event is a combination beanbag toss and space hopper race, and the Princess's team wins, making them the winners of the cup.
This episode provides examples of
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: At one point, Puss puts on sunglasses.
- An Aesop: One of the rare instances of a moral in a Little Princess episode, namely a moral about the importance of teamwork.
- Big "NO!": When Scruff drops his egg, Princess yells, "NO!".
- Buffy Speak: The Chef calls the space hoppers the "bouncy things".
- Happy Dance:
- When the Princess is looking over the luckier teams, the Gardener can be seen happily jumping from foot to foot.
- When the Princess's team wins the Wellington boot toss, she and Scruff do a little celebratory dance.
- Hypocrite: The Princess is initially insistent that Scruff can't be on anyone's team because dogs aren't allowed, then later she cheats.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: The Chef says, "If you drop [the baton], you! Are! Out!"
- Sore Loser: When the Princess's team loses the Egg and Spoon race, she growls, then when they lose the relay race, she becomes outright sad, as do the Admiral and Scruff.
- Title Drop: When the Princess is asked if it's a special occasion, she excitedly shouts, "It's Sports Day!".
