Village clean up and duck race 2021
Saturday 24th April saw the Annual Parish Council Village Clean Up and Fundridge Duck race. The weather showed up, giving us a beautifully sunny afternoon and the residents of Sundridge, old and new, joined us to help bring a bit of sparkle back to our village. An impressive 60 plus bags of rubbish were collected from all over the village by the 10 groups of families/friends.
After the litter pick the Fundridge Duck Race was held. Attendees could purchase a plastic duck number for £1 to enter themselves into the race and win a chance at one of the prizes, which ranged from Easter eggs to a bottle of Champagne to wireless speakers. We even piloted a contactless payment system, which worked wonderfully. Thank you to Richard Dunkley and The Friends of St Mary’s for your support in this.
John and Tricia Evans lined the ducks up for an exciting start at Sundridge recreation ground, particularly as the ducks seemed a little keen to get going on their own. The ducks set off at 16:45 and with a fair wind and John Evans following behind them (ensuring none got stuck and left in the river), they speedily made their way along the river to Coronation Garden, with the winning duck setting a new course record of 10mins! It shows the difference a lovely clean river can make!
Their speed made their arrival at Coronation Garden a frenzied event. As duck catcher I was caught slightly off guard and had to quickly jump into the river with the net to catch them. The first 8 ducks over the line all took a prize home and there was even a prize for our very own John Banbrook who received the wooden spoon as his duck did not seem to want to keep up the pace of the others.
The ducks arrival was met with much excitement and cheering particularly by the children along the bank and balancing on the log over the river. A simple sight that previously may have gone unappreciated but after the year we’ve all hand, to have our village green once again filled with the sounds of joy is the reason the Fundridge team came together. We hope you all had as much fun as we did.
Big thanks to John Evans, the Parish Council, Sevenoaks District Council, Friends of St Mary’s and all our lovely volunteers for helping make our first village event of 2021 truly wonderful.
