THE funds raised from the last Boxing Day charity duck race in Bibury were presented to the event’s chosen charity recently.

The presentation evening was held at the Catherine Wheel pub in Bibury on February 5, where Steve Mould from the Great Western Air Ambulance (GWAA) was handed a cheque for £1,500.

Having run for more than 30 years, the Bibury duck race features two individual races on the River Coln; one in aid of Bibury Cricket Club who organise the event, and another for a charity of the winner’s choice.

The money for the charity was raised by charging £10 for ‘decoy’ rubber ducks to take part in the race, all 150 of which were sold.

The winner of the race, young Daniel Bedford from Westwell, nominated the GWAA to receive the money.

Steve Turner helps run the event as a member of Bibury Cricket Club and was pleased with the popularity of this year’s event.

He said: “It was another big event this year, with a couple of thousand attending.

“A young lad won the charity race this year, his father flies out of RAF Brize Norton, so I assume the GWAA was picked because of his flying links.”

Speaking after the duck race Terry Day, Bibury Cricket Club committee member, said: “All the decoy and yellow ducks were sold. It was absolutely packed and all went pretty smoothly. There were 1000 plus people who came down.

“The event was started by the cricket club 30 plus years ago, initially just with the yellow ducks to raise funds for the club and then we had the idea to introduce the decoy ducks to make money for the charities.”