Third annual duck race the best yet

Some of the ducks needed a little encouragement to reach the finish line

To watch and hear the start of the 2026 duck race, please click here: 
The start of the 2026 Knighton Park duck race. Video by Karen Haylett

Bradgate Rotary member Jim Steel stepped up at the last minute to take this video of the start of the race, with a quacking soundtrack. 
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The duck race, which runs alongside the Friends of Knighton Park’s annual show held on the first Sunday of each September, made a profit of about £2850.

Ten per cent of the profit will go to The Friends of Knighton Park, a group of volunteers who help Leicester City Council keep the park a beautiful place of peace loved by fitness fans and dog-lovers.

The rest will go to the Leicestershire branch of the Motor Neurone Disease Association  which helps the 90-95 people in the city and county who are living with the life-limiting disease and their families, who have to make drastic changes to their lives when a diagnosis of MND is made.

Because generous visitors to the event made donations as well as buying race tickets, some of the money will attract Gift Aid, adding 25% to their donation.

The duck race was organised and run by members of three Rotary clubs;Leicester, Leicester De Montfort and Bradgate. They were assisted on the day by MNDA Leicestershire branch funding co-ordinator Paul Wilcock and three other branch volunteers.

The branch volunteers help in many ways, including by providing mobility aids, easy-rise armchairs, medical aids and Eyegaze devices which many people will remember seeing Professor Stephen Hawking use to communicate with sampled speech.

The branch also holds coffee and chat sessions and counselling for patients and families.

Paul Wilcock and John Wells, President of Leicester De Montfort Rotary Club started the event by tipping 1,000 plastic ducks into The Washbrook, which runs through Knighton Park. Rotary volunteers made sure that all the ducks made it to the finish line 200 yards downstream.

Race promoter Jim Matthews, a member of Bradgate Rotary said: “It was a great event alongside the Knighton Park show. We Rotarians are so grateful to Tony Salmon and all of the Friends of Knighton Park for being so helpful and hospitable. We received lots of help and advice from the city council’s parks department.

“Our biggest vote of thanks must go to the hundreds of people who bought tickets and made donations.

“It was another example of the sort of community engagement that Rotary exists for and thrives in,” said Jim.

“I was particularly pleased to see a radio controlled duck make a cameo appearance in the ring between acts. It was controlled by a young woman I met in Bradgate Park a few weeks ago. She promised to come down to Knighton Park even though she had not been there before and had to come all the way from Chesterfield.”

The winning tickets were:

Jim said: “We are especially grateful to the donors of our prizes, which we estimate to have been worth over £700.

“The random nature of duck races was demonstrated by the winners…

“The first prize, a party for up to 20 children, donated by Everyone Active, Oadby Parklands, was won by 80-year-old Terry!" Click here to hear what generous Terry chose what to do with his prize.

"And another prize, a delightfully delicate piece of porcelain produced by Bradgate Rotary member Perin Towlson, was won by one of the MNDA volunteers manning the duck race gazebo. With Perin standing nearby, one of the Rotary team rang the telephone number on the winning ticket and asked: “Is that Derek?

“Yes,” he replied, turning round to see that he was being called by someone only six feet behind him!

If you took any photos on the day, please let us share them on our website and Facebook pages.