Crowds celebrate return of village duck race ... after 10 years

Hundreds of people celebrated the return of Pulborough Duck Race - after 10 years - with a fun afternoon of events on the River Arun.

Villagers swarmed to Swan Bridge to enjoy the return of the 3,500 ducks which were recently recovered after being lost in an old garage for years.

A field beside the river was mown and enclosed in flags and bunting to celebrate the event and a children’s roundabout and stalls added to the fun.

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Fourteen square polystyrene panels - supplied by Willmers Electrical - were decorated as river floats by children from each form of Pulborough’s St Mary’s Primary School. Each represented a separate country.

The country panels were judged by Sue Russell Flint, daughter-in-law of renowned artist Sir William Russell Flint - and she decided that the gold winner was Year 2 with ‘India’ and silver was Year 5 with ‘China’.

The duck race principal sponsor, Emma of Dashing Hounds Dog Grooming of Pulborough, launched the ducks in batches of around 500 from the bridge.

Before and between the duck race heats the crowds were wowed by Arundel Canoe Club demonstrating rescue techniques, walking on a pontoon of canoes and providing displays of canoe rolling and acrobatics.

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Thanks were given to all who made the event possible, including Keith and Terry Reynolds who own the field,; Keith Brundle, who set up fencing; and local businesses including Vitality Dental Practice, LMC Motors, Tesco, Harwoods and a team of Pulborough Community Partnership who created and ran the event.

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