Including winning numbers
Winds halted the annual charity duck race from Mansbridge to Woodmill just before the finish line on bank holiday Monday, but organisers declared winners based on duck positions at the final bend.
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As it does every year, the 35th annual duck race enabled Eastleigh and Swanwick Lions to raise cash for good causes.
The public sponsors a numbered plastic duck to race from Mansbridge to Woodmill, and businesses donate prizes for the winning ducks and their sponsors.
This year however the race wasn’t exactly plain sailing, with the ducks failing to make the finish line for the first time in the race’s history.
Dave Bowring from the Eastleigh Lions Club Duck Race Committee said: “We certainly ran the race, but when the ducks reached the last corner to head down the finishing straight, they were stopped by the wind!
“As there were [a] lot of people waiting for them at the finish line, we sent our adjudicators up to the bend along with our river marshal ... and we removed the ducks starting with the one closest to the finish line. This enabled us to provide a set of winning numbers which were generated by the duck positions, just as if they had managed the last 300 metres!”
He added that tickets were sold out at both ends of the course by around 1.30pm, before the race started.
Bowring also thanked St Denys Boat Club who were “battling with the ducks, the trees, the wind and the sluice en route and without whom the event wouldn't work!”.
He also thanked local prize sponsors, including Plesteds Bakehouse, Nails 28, The Songbird, Sally’s Stompers Line Dancing, Darn it and Stitch, rideride, SoRoast and more.
The winning numbers* were: 2553, 3355, 1217, 3362, 1782, 3424, 1745, 3365, 2443, 2252, 1486, 2030, 3373, 1472, 2578, 3464, 2903, 1701, 3427, 2404, 2280, 2952,
You can watch a Lions' video of this year's race highlights below, from sorting the ducks at St Denys Boat Club beforehand to noting the winners.
Photo: Easltleigh/Swanwick Lions video screenshot
* E&OE. Lions hold the definitive list.