Middle Rasen Duck Race (MRDR) working group would like to thank everyone involved in making the event, held on New Year's day 2018, such a great success. The advice given from the previous committee, all the sponsors, Barry and Jenny at the Nag's Head for hosting the draw and raffle afterwards, and all the people who donated such a fantastic variety of prizes, all this support meant the village tradition could go ahead.

Thanks also go to those who helped with the workload, such as labelling all the ducks - some at the last minute when we realised just how many ducks we had sold - those who helped with the selling the ducks and those involved in getting 'wet' i on the day. Most importantly, however thanks to all the people who bought the ducks, many of whom also attended on the day, we sold 930 ducks which was fantastic in our first year and together with the raffle managed to raise £ 1065, all of which will go to local worthy causes.

Due to the recent heavy rainfall, the river was quite high and flowing fast, meaning the race lasted only 11 minutes. The winners of the Duck Race were, 1st place winning £ 100 - Mr Richards with his duck called Elijah, 2nd place winning £ 50 - Pete Ward with his duck called Brooke, 3rd place winning £ 25 - Amanda Nelson - with her duck called Gerald, 4th place winning £ 25 - Melissa Skinner with her duck named Harper and finally a duck called Elsie May came last, she was also owned by Pete Ward (who had in fact also sponsored this prize) and he kindly gifted the £ 10 to Elliott Folgate.

The MRDR committee have decided to donate funds to a range of local causes including Middle Rasen School, Local Rainbows/Brownies/Cub/Scout groups, Middle Rasen Short Mat Bowls Group, the local elderly community and Middle Rasen Village Hall for General Maintenance. We shall be contacting these groups to see what they will be using the money for. We are also looking into the possibility of supporting funding a centrally located Defibrillator (AED) for the village.

We are already planning for next year's race and will be fundraising throughout the year for this based on football team draw cards held at The George, Market Rasen and The Nag's Head, Middle Rasen, supported by Neil Harrison. And finally we also planning to hold a summer event in the river, suggestions welcome - watch this space!