On September 6th 2009 The Great British Duck Race took place at Molesey Lock, near Hampton Court Palace. It was the third time the race had been held at the location and whilst the world record for duck racing (205,000) was broken the race had Duck Holiday, who gone to watch the proceedings, feeling rather blue. And that’s because this year the organisers had used blue ducks!

Now we’ve nothing against blue ducks, but a lock full of blue ducks just doesn’t have the same ducky delight a a dock full of yellow ducks. Apparently the blue was at the request of the sponsors and thankfully next year the 2010 race will revert back to the good old traditional yellow duck.

This was the first Great British Duck Race we’d attended and we were surprised by just how busy things were. People were all along the banks and bridges waiting for the ducks to come steaming out of the lock. Sadly that didn’t happen as the blue ducks were reluctant to leave their lock home and it took a couple of canoeists to encourage the mass of blue rubber to start “swimming” along The Thames.

The celebrity on hand this year to start the event was world renowned DJ Norman Jay – Duck Holiday only has one question about this guy though – “who is he”?

That aside it was a fun hour or two watching the start and seeing the ducks start their long journey and we’re already looking forward to 2010. Sadly our ducks didn’t make it home to scoop any prizes but the good news is that you can start buying ducks for the next event in October.