Sunday morning, September 27, saw the Dubbo Ducks doff their feathers to the emergency services working and living throughout our communities. The swimmers lined up for a three-event card, including the annual "Emergency Services Relay".

A 50m freestyle was the first event, eliciting all kinds of banter about the water temperature and relative buoyancy. Mal Cavanagh and Tim Gratton travelled way too fast and saw Mark Scullard take first, Jack Allen in second and in-form Warren Williams third.

The Ducks swim the Emergency Services Relay to acknowledge and support the extraordinary efforts of our Ambo's, Firies and Police. Teams of three were randomly chosen from a hat. The race consists of one leg of 50m each in backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle. The final was preceded by closely contested heats with the aim to swim as close to handicap in each stroke with the combined time deciding. Two teams finished within six seconds of their respective marks and there was only 0.09 seconds between them. Louise Poulain, Katharine O'Rourke and Mal Cavanagh had the edge on Marg Ross, John Wherritt and Neil Harris and claimed a well deserved victory. Well done to everyone involved. Excellent racing!

The final event of the morning was a 50m freestyle. This was not a normal 'at Go' last race, rather, had heats and a final. The first three in the final were separated by only four one hundredths of a second. Warren Williams first, Pete Allen second, Peter Hargreaves third, John Wherritt fourth and Henry Wilcockson rounded out the top five.

Lucky numbers went to Ron Everrett and Neil Harris, while September point score results: Third, Louise Poulain (46), second, Jack Allen and Ron Everett (47), and first, Katharine O'Rourke and Warren Williams (48).

The mighty Dubbo Ducks swim every Sunday at the Dubbo RSL Indoor Pool. Our contact details can be found under Sunday in the Diary section of Dubbo Photo News.

That's this week's tidings from the Duckpond.