‘Nice weather for ducks!’

THAME’S familiar community spirit was illustrated in bucket loads last weekend when the day after the best Thame Carnival for years, the persistent rain threatened to overshadow the annual Thame Round Table Duck Race.

Hundreds came out, appropriately dressed to deal with the worst weather and watched as around 1800 rubber ducks were launched from Thame Bridge to start the race. As always, Captain Ducky was on hand to interrupt proceedings in his amazingly crafted, paddle powered pallets, with Pirate Peter trying not to sink his bath/boat contraption!

‘Splash’ the pirate, aka Peter Butt

One of the race organisers, Tim Lancaster, explained the proceedings: “The pirates helped the ducks along their way, entertaining (we hope!) the crowd as they followed the flow down river, with a mixture of terrible jokes and collapsing watercraft!”

Fellow organiser, Neil Shorter, continued: “The Duck Race is always a highlight of the year for our members to run, whatever the weather. We are grateful to the people of our community that came out to support us; even we, ourselves struggled to want to come out in the rain!

“It was all worth it though, as over £3,500 was raised, all of which is donated to local groups and charities.

“We would also like to thank all the friends of Thame Round Table,” Neil added, “including the Fire Service, Peach Pubs, Helpful Hirings and KnowledgePoint for sponsoring and supporting the event.”

Winning tickets were:
1st- 1727
2nd- 962
3rd- 509

Seesaw.org.uk, are one of Thame Round Table’s charities to benefit from their activities.  Seesaw is an Oxford based grief support Charity, providing support specifically to young people that have lost family members.

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Website: www.thame.roundtable.co.uk