Families put their buckets and spades to good use in a sand sculpture competition in Yarmouth today.The third Master of the Sands contest took place on the resort's central beach with competitors challenged to build a sand sculpture to be in with a chance of winning a Haven holiday.

Families put their buckets and spades to good use in a sand sculpture competition in Yarmouth today.

The third Master of the Sands contest took place on the resort's central beach with competitors challenged to build a sand sculpture to be in with a chance of winning a Haven holiday.

Despite cloudy skies and bursts of heavy rain, 23 teams took part in the competition and after hours spent carefully crafting the designs, judges named a car and an ice cream as among the best sculptures.

Donna Bidwell, the town's tourism events manager, said: 'Unfortunately the weather has been horrible - cold and lots of rain. Everyone has enjoyed themselves anyway and the sculptures were great - one family made a seahorse and sea creatures and even used food colouring to colour the sand for it.'

Award-winning sand sculptor Simon Smith, from Jersey, created his own giant sand castle on the beach on Saturday and taught workshops today to tell visitors more about sculpting with sand.