A DAZZLING sea of 800 ducks floated through Branscombe during the annual Easter Sunday Duck Race. Hundreds of plucky youngsters and their families descended on the village to watch the races in aid of three charities. Nearly 600 yellow ducks were releas

A DAZZLING sea of 800 ducks floated through Branscombe during the annual Easter Sunday Duck Race.

Hundreds of plucky youngsters and their families descended on the village to watch the races in aid of three charities.

Nearly 600 yellow ducks were released into the water treatment for the first race and �519 was raised for Branscombe's Village Hall Roof Fund.

The first duck to reach the Sea Shanty belonged to Sidmouth man, Dave O'Connor, and Simon Kingston, of Tiverton, won second prize.

In contrast a mass of red rubber ducks were plunged into the stream for the second and final race, in aid of the Branscombe branch of the Royal British Legion and Help for Heroes.

Around �330 was raised for the two charities, of which �200 will be donated to Help for Heroes and the remainder to the RBL and the Poppy Appeal.

Organiser Steve Keane, dressed head to toe in a yellow duck suit, made sure things went along swimmingly.

He said: "There was a fantastic turn out for both of the events. We sold a lot of ducks in advance for the first race but we still sold about 150 on the beach.

"We were very pleased with the whole day and were very happy for everyone's support- it is always a team effort.