20 July 2012 15:56 GMT

There is a new attraction at Royal Lytham & St Annes. It did not exist before this week began, but its fame is spreading — both the BBC and Sky News have rushed to capture video evidence, and the Daily Mail have photographed it. It is… the Duck Pond.

Visitors to this new attraction, right outside the Lancashire Marquee just south of the practice ground, might think it looks remarkably like a puddle. And…well, all right then, if you insist upon being picky… it is indeed a puddle, and a particularly awkward one at that.

It arrived in a small hollow following the heavy overnight rain on Sunday, and would not go away on Monday. So enterprising Trish Moston who works in the Lancashire Marquee decided that rather than be an inconvenience, it should become an attraction in itself. She brought in four rubber ducks to decorate it, and they have been quite at home ever since.

By this morning the latest overnight deluge had made the puddle bigger still. So Viv Wood — tourism officer for Lytham St Anne’s, who is working at the Information Centre next door to the Lancashire Marquee — brought in some rather picturesque wire fencing to cordon off the pond. Somewhere along the line a frog was added (toy, not real, you understand) and now the ducks even have names — Trish, Viv, Julie and Charlotte.

At this rate, by the time the winner walks up the 18th on Sunday, the Duck Pond will have become a wildlife game reserve. Watch this space.