"They are going to win — obviously there's no other option. Otherwise I've wasted my time." Toby Clark isn't your average England fan. He spent eight and a half hours arranging stones on a Suffolk beach into a 6x8 metre Three Lions crest just to mark the opening day of the World Cup. And then someone drove a vehicle over it. Two more hours of restoration work later, it was back.
Clark, from Lowestoft, planned the design for weeks — working from a template, a grid, and string before stamping out the shape by foot in the sand. It was ready for Thursday's tournament opener. Just about.
A tradition with history
This isn't the first time Clark has done this. He created a chalk version of the England crest ahead of the 2018 World Cup semi-final against Croatia — a game that ended in a 2-1 defeat and sent England home without a trophy. Now Croatia are the opponents again in Dallas, kick-off at 21:00, and Clark is hoping for a very different outcome.
If England do go all the way and lift the 18-carat gold trophy, he's already promised a follow-up: a beach portrait of the entire squad. A nice incentive for Southgate's men, if nothing else.
He's drawn a crowd too. "Everyone seems to love it, even people who are not big football fans can still appreciate the time it took and the effort and the passion," Clark said. What he won't be doing is any more repair work — the tide will take care of it eventually, and he seems at peace with that.
Ipswich getting in on the act
Clark isn't alone in his pre-tournament enthusiasm across Suffolk. In Ipswich, John Goode, 64, and his daughter Rachel, 28, have lined their home on Norwich Road with 60 metres of bunting and eight large England flags. The reaction from neighbours has been positive. John, who isn't fully convinced England will win it, still thinks more flags from any nation would be a good thing — Portugal, Scotland, whoever.
Rachel cuts to what it's actually about for most fans: "It's just the fact that it brings the country together for a little while." She reckons an early goal tonight settles the nerves and England dominate from there. Given England's patchy history of opening tournament games, that's optimistic — but after everything Clark went through just to get a stone crest finished in time, optimism seems to be the theme of the day.
