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After MayFest...more mayhem!

Richmond's famous and completely bonkers Duck Race takes place every year on the River Swale, on the early-May Bank Holiday Monday. 2500 yellow toy ducks are ceremonially launched into the water at Green Bridge, to battle their way downstream, through the perilous waterfall section, the chicanes below, and the treacherous backwaters of The Batts. Spectators line the banks to roar the winner over the finish line, near Station Bridge.

But why? For charity, of course! Every duck carries a number, and is sponsored, for £2. Generous prizes are awarded by the Richmond Duck Club for the first three ducks past the line, and a consolation prize for the last duck home. The proceeds of the event support activities for young people in the town. It's not the Grand National, it's not Henley - but it's very, very Richmond.

(Fascinating aside: the Duck Club was founded around 1900 as a social club. An annual outing, generally to the seaside, was taken in an open-topped charabanc. Every time it passed under a bridge, the cry of "Duck!" went up - and the club suddenly had a new name. In later years, a couple of members - perhaps not entirely sober? - found a batch of rubber ducks for sale and bought them on a whim for the club. The rest is history.)

If you'd like to invest in a duck - or two, or ten! - and try your luck, and support a good cause at the same time, why not visit richmondduckclub.co.uk. If you'd like to watch the mayhem on the Swale, just turn up on the banks of the river, anywhere between the two bridges, at 14:00 on Monday 4 May. 

Duck-lovers and pollution-haters, rest easy: no duck is left behind. They are all rescued from the river, allowed to recover, and stored for next year.