THE first week of June has officially been a wash-out.

THE first week of June has officially been a wash-out.

According to weatherman Ken Blowers, more than 2 inches of rain has fallen in the first seven days of this month.

This is compared to the normal average for the whole of June of only 1.82 inches.

Nine hours of rain fell on Saturday, following on from Friday's ten-hour deluge, leaving the ground sodden and many events being forced to cancel.

The biggest casualty was yesterday's Orwell Walk, organised by the Rotary Club of Ipswich East.

It was due to take place yesterday, ironically it would have been held under blue skies, but the charity event was called off on Saturday.

Organiser John Button said large areas of the walk were totally impassable.

He said: “We had a look on Saturday morning but it was clear that the walk could not go ahead. It's not that parts of the walk were muddy - parts of the walk were under a great deal of water!”

The walk has now been re-arranged for September 7.

A popular village fete also fell victim to the wet weather at the weekend.

The Bredfield Fete, near Woodbridge was due to entertain hundreds of people on Saturday afternoon.

The organising committee told the EADT they will be postponing the event until July 5.

Andrew Miller, chairman of the fete organising committee, said: “From my point of view it was quite a responsibility calling it off because we have never done it before. But really the weather just got the better of us this time.”

But however damp Saturday appeared to be, it proved perfect weather for ducks.

Thousands of plastic ducks flew down the river in Combs Ford, Stowmarket for their annual duck race on Saturday.

David Hart the Group Scout leader and starting Marshall on the said: “We normally expect the 2,000 ducks to take about 15 minutes to complete the course. However this year they were taking something like 90 seconds. It was like the ducks were on steroids although we are pleased to say that none failed the doping tests!”

Weatherman Mr Blowers reassured the weather would remain dry for the rest of the week, before temperatures started to cool again.

He said: “In the first week of June we have already gone over the amount of rain expected to fall in the whole of month.”