A GAGGLE of colourful quackers jostled for position as Wroughton Duck Races got under way yesterday.

As well as 450 yellow plastic competitors there were ducks dressed up as different characters. A regal fowl, wearing a crown, an ermine cloak and tiny glasses sat alongside a mallard with a bearskin and a bright red guardsman’s jacket, while a Bob Marley duck rubbed shoulders with Count Duckula.

There was even a yellow submarine and a wooden ship crewed by miniature rat figures.

Blustery weather conditions failed to deter residents who turned up to the Willow Brook Gardens at Ellendune.

Margaret Parker was with her grandson Josh, five. “It’s a nice thing to do on a bank holiday and we know the money is going to good causes,” she said. “Josh loves seeing the ducks going along all together.”

“We don’t mind the weather. It’s England and we just get on with it.”

Produce and sweet stalls and games including hook a duck, kept the crowd amused along with some very popular Labrador guide dog puppies.

Brian Tildesley from Vision for Wroughton, which organised the event, said: “It is well supported by the businesses and the people of Wroughton. Because it’s for charity we get a lot of residents who just turn up and buy 10 ducks.”

Last year race organisers managed to give £1,500 to local youth groups.

There were races for children and adults and the Business Challenge Shield with dressed ducks.

A new contest introduced last year was the memorial challenge, in honour of popular parish councillor and local farmer Mike Hinder, who died in 2014.

Entrants were challenged to design and build anything that would float. “We get all sorts of imaginative things for that,” said Brian.