The North Devon Hospice National Sandcastle Competition has been resurrected Westward Ho! style! It was a lot of fun and created a wonderful buzz around the village
After we had to cancel the first date due to poor weather, Mother Nature surely provided the goods on the 7th July 2019! What a glorious day, bright sunshine with very little wind, then around building time, it clouded over a bit making it bearable...It was perfect sandcastle weather!
Due to the change of dates we only had one team entered online, panic? No, we figured we could bully some into taking part as they arrived for a relaxing day to watch the Sandcastle Competition! After re jigging the categories we managed to get 14 teams signed up. We had two adult teams, 6 kids teams and 6 family teams, we had enough, we had a competition.
The two adult teams had three hours build team to create their masterpiece, Pearce Homes were head to head with Westerly Mini Barnstaple. Both built worthy sculptures and the judges found it hard to pick a winner. Our newly created family category had two hours and the standard here was surprisingly good, kids had a hour and again some sandcastles were really impressive.
To keep morale high and boost the building spirit, we had set the stage up on the prom. Once Peter had worked the microphone to gain another 13 teams, the focus went to the entertainment. Shannon Amy Lewis, Sophie Littlejohns and Digger Gilbert, our village musicians, provided some wonderful tunes. Shannon even asked a little girl from the crowd to help her, was a very sweet moment to see little Alice, all nervous perform with Shannon.
The number of entrants was low but we made it one heck of a day, there wasn't a free parking space in Westward Ho! The Sandcastle Competition had drawn in about 2000 people, the village was buzzing. So great to experience such a beautiful, family friendly atmosphere and although very busy, there was plenty of space.
The trophys were manufactured by Dartington Crystal, one of the companies that always used to rank highly in the competition of past years. After the hard job of judging, the results were as follows-
1st and winner of the first Westward Ho! North Devon Hospice National Sandcastle Competition - Pearce Homes with the sea scene and don't pollute our oceans message, team pictured below-
2nd Place went to Westerly Mini Barnstaple with the big sand mini. Team pictured below-
The third prize trophy went to the winner of the Family category. This category made the judges sweat! They were really split but eventually awarded the crystal to Pineapple Squids pictured below-
The kids competition was also a tough battle but their could only be one winner. Clive from the Beach Shop by now had had it, he couldn't pick just one so ran to his shop and brought all the kids a prize! He said they were all winners! This is true Westward Ho! spirit. They did choose though, the winning glass trophy went to Lucas, pictured below-
That was it, done and dusted. The North Devon Hospice National Sandcastle Competition has been revived from the ashes, it's back and watch for the 2020 date soon! We want to thank the following that without you events like this just can't go on-
Dartington Crystal, Torrington. As main sponsors they made the trophys.
Travis Perkins, Barnstaple. Supplying the road pins for marking out the areas.
Westerly Mini Barnstaple. Supplying 660m rope to mark the areas.
Atlantic Racquet Centre. Supplying 144 old tennis balls to make the road pins safe.
Beach Shop, Westward Ho! Paying for safety cover and prizes plus judging.
Shannon Amy Lewis, Sophie Littlejohns and Digger Gilbert for donating their time to entertain the crowds.
Cathy and team from North Devon Hospice.
Jack Johns and family for the wonderful warm up.
Simon Ellery for the wonderful photos of the event.
Peter Sawyer for putting it all together and making sure it ran, even when at one stage, there was only 1 team!
What an atmosphere around the village, what a spectacle to see the sandcastles, awesome entertainment and many memories made...See you all again next year, the second years are always bigger, better as the event gets established.
Above- After the event. The only things left were piles of sand, the only things gained were a warm, fuzzy feeling inside, a glow from the sun burn and great memories. Thank you very much Westward Ho!, you provided a perfect venue once more.
