An artist has crafted a giant England badge out of stones on the sand near Lowestoft, Suffolk, as the national men's team prepare to kick off their World Cup campaign later on Wednesday.
Artist's Creation
Toby Clark, 40, said it took him "a little over eight-and-a-half hours" to sculpt the shield which measures six metres wide by nine metres tall (19.6ft by 29.5ft). The football fan made the emblem on the opening day of the World Cup on June 11, with the lettering spelling out "England" and the star above the shield increasing its size further.
"It's all just stones off the beach, just scooping them up in tubs and sprinkling them down," said Mr Clark. He said he flattened out the area first and laid out a grid in string to help guide him. "I've always wanted to do stuff like this since watching Art Attack growing up," he said. "Doing this specifically, I often do big England badges when I can. I've done big chalk ones on the patio before. Whenever I get the opportunity, I do one."
Reaction and Restoration
Mr Clark, who works as a cleaner, said "people seem to be really impressed with it." He said there had been "an awful lot of talk of people just assuming that it's AI when they see the pictures, which I take as a huge compliment." In a social media post, Mr Clark of Lowestoft said that a vehicle had driven over the beach artwork earlier in the week. Speaking on Wednesday, he said he believed this was accidental and that he had restored the badge before England's opening match against Croatia at the Dallas Stadium later. "When you're in the location you can clearly see it is the only access point onto the beach for vehicles," he said. "Whoever's driven over it presumably had the keys to the gate to get onto the beach in the first place. So it's going to be the council or police, fire brigade, maybe coastguard. Someone like that. I don't think it's intentional and I don't think they would have had any option. I think I've done a pretty decent job of restoring it. It looks good to me."
England's Chances
Asked about England's chances at the tournament, Mr Clark said: "We're going to bring it home, obviously – otherwise I've wasted my time."
