Photo Finish

Big day here in Furnace, our annual fundraising Duck Derby was held down at the River Leaccain. Hard to believe that last year there was barely any water in the river and they had to open the gates of Loch Leaccain which is the resevoir for the village.

Anyway after weeks of frenzied activity selling yellow plastic ducks ( 200 adult tickets and 100 children's tickets which brought in £500 for the village hall fund) , the ducks were all bagged and labelled for the heats in the two races.

The judges were in position in the water wearing high waders ready for the big responsibility of picking out the first three in each heat and the races were off. Dropped from the bridge over the Leaccain the ducks had to fight the rapids over the rocks , where many came a cropper stuck behind rocks and crevices at the edge of the river. Those ducks who ( should that be which for inamiate objects ? ) survived the rapids then had to pick up the currrent which ebbed and flowed over a river bed full of varying sizes of rocks, again some came a cropper in the slower moving parts of the river. Front runners lost pace and were overtaken by the slower moving ducks who picked up the pace as they saw the end in sight. All through the race there was a running commentary on the progress of the owner's ducks and excitement mounted on the bridge where a huge crowd came to cheer on their own ducks. By the time the 6 heats were over and the two finals were ready for the off, the pressure was on and owners became more animated in cheering on the finalists.

The children's final had a clear 1st , 2nd and 3rd but the adult race was a photo finish as you can see from this shot. The judges held maximum concentration as their task became more difficult when the duck in 3rd place took a sudden spurt forward to win the race. Such a pity as John's duck " Quen Elinore" was wiinning and was beaten into second place in the final centimetres of the race.

All this excitement for the princely sum of £10 for 1st, £6 for second and £4 for 3rd.It was great fun , honestly and we had the barbecue at the hall to move on to as well as the prize presentation.

Three years ago , our daughter who is based near London was here with lots of southerners for her wedding the day before. We had a barbecue on the shore below our garden before heading off with our guests to the famous Duck Derby. heaven knows what they must think of we teuchters in our wee part of Argyll if this is our answer to the Derby.

Hope you all had as wonderful and stimulating a weekend as we had!

meant to suggest the LARGE might be worth viewing for all the detail in the river bed. Ther ed peaty water gives th name to the street close to the river ( Redwell Park" because there was a well close to the river.