THE rain stopped just in time for the Great Ilkley Duck Race to go ahead on Saturday.
April showers almost scuppered the event and gave Rotarians in the Ilkley Wharfedale Club, who organise the day, a tense week monitoring the river level gauges as they faced the possibility of having to cancel the race because the river would be too high.
“It was touch and go right up to 7pm the night before when we went into the water to measure the strength of the current,” said Rotarian Dan Bown, whose team erect a stout boom 350 metres downstream of the launch to ensure no ducks evade capture at the end of the race. “We’d set ourselves a river level beyond which we didn’t think we should go into the river and we were at that level on the Friday evening. Fortunately there was no rain overnight and the river continued to recede by the next morning so we went ahead. In fact it was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine and everyone had a great time.”
A total of 4,500 yellow ducks were launched into the River Wharfe from the New Street Bridge, watched by hundreds of people, and raising over £12,000 for Rotary charities.
There were cash prizes for the first six ducks home and the top prize of £200 for Duck Number 1922 went to Ed Cannon, of Addingham, who was down at the river to watch the race with his two children, Rupert and Ginny and two of their friends.
The second prize, of £100, won by Duck number 2733, went to Otley family Danny and Levi Brickles, who were also on the field to watch the race with their children Harlow and Rafe.
The third prize of £75, won by Duck 1862 , was won by Julie Walker, of Devon.
Fourth, fifth and sixth prizes of £50 each went to duck numbers 1308 - Angela Garczynski, of Ilkley; 1157 to Hugh Lambert, of Addingham and 3390 to Jude McNeice, of Ilkley.
“We’d like to thank all the people who helped us to put on the event,” said Club Co-President Jo Jarvis, "the finish line team, the Air Cadets, kayakers, and our associate members - we couldn’t do it without them.”
The Yellow Duck Race was preceded by the Business Red Duck Race launched at 2.15pm when 100 red ducks sponsored by businesses competed in their own race.
“We have some fantastic businesses in Ilkley,” said Club Co-President Peter Mate. "Really supportive of our efforts to raise money for local charities. We salute them all and thank them for their contribution to a really successful event.”
The Club will announce the full list of charitable donations from the race as soon as its full expenses are known and the accounts finalised but in the meantime they have issued a big thank you to everyone who bought a ticket and helped to make the day such a success.
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