AN East Lancashire church is planning a virtual duck race -- but needs help from across the globe for it to work.

St James in Brindle was forced to cancel its annual duck race in the summer when foot and mouth restrictions meant most of the fields and rivers around the village were declared out of bounds. The church, currently raising funds for repairs and improvements, faced missing out on hundreds of pounds of much-needed cash. But local man Carl Trowbridge who launched Brindle village's very own website, www.brindlevillage.netnow.co.uk, has come to the rescue with a cyberspace race. Carl, of Mint Holme Farm, Hoghton, said: "It is relatively simple. People go to the website and email me the title of their duck, named after a foreign city.

"They then send £1 through the post as a registration fee. Once we have 500 registered, we will invite people to look at the site and click on the duck which shares the same name as their city.

"To prove they actually live in the city, they will have to email us a picture of them near a well-known landmark. We then close the competition and duck with the same name as the place where the person furthest away has visited us wins."