The 21st annual Sand Sculpture Competition was deemed a roaring success with more than 25 teams testing their skills.

At the end of the day, however, it was the team of Hannah Emmerson and Mikal Thomas who took top honours, crafting a castle with a dragon wrapped around its base.

Meanwhile, the Hasting’s family took the prize in the family category for their own dragon, and both Fiona Dobson and Kristina Grant won prizes in the teenager category, creating a snorkeller and a hippopotamus respectively.

And in the heated children’s category, Maximo Deiros, Gideon Wheddon and Constantino Deiros took home first place with a scene of towers.

Leonard Ming meanwhile won the open category with a mermaid surrounded by other sea life. Event organiser Nicky Gurret said she was thrilled by this year’s entries, noting that the event featured more entries than in 2015.

“It went really well,” she said. “The weather is always the big battle for us, but it turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day with some clouds and a lot of sun.

“We had 26 entries this year, and the calibre of the entries was excellent. People were producing some really good pieces of sculpture, and it was just wonderful to see. You would see people walk by with their children and just shout out, ‘There’s Johnny Barnes’, or ‘Look at that Buddha’.

“Hopefully it will continue to grow, but there are only so many people on the island.”