Ominous-looking clouds and a few raindrops did nothing to dampen the spirits of contestants in this years? sandcastle competition at Horseshoe Bay over the weekend.

About 150 adults, children and even a group of visitors flocked to the beach to participate in the annual event sponsored by the Institute of Bermuda Architects, and this year buildings of various shapes and sizes seemed to dominate the beach.

The Fairmont Southampton and even the majestic Taj Mahal ? which came second in the children?s section ? were created in sand in less than three hours, but a menagerie of animals from elephants to iguanas and lions lay in wait for judges to make their decision.

The winners of this year?s adult class were also last year?s winners.

The group, consisting of Christie Meacham, Buffy Marques, Hannah Emmerson, Adam Mattatall and Josh Sterang paid tribute to the Gombeys in a creation, complete with a moongate, which left spectators in awe.

While the two men did all the labour-intensive work of digging sand, the three young women sculptured the creation.

The teenage section was won by cousins Deunde Cox, 12, and Che Caines, 14, who chose to build the Fairmont Southampton in sand.

Deunde said his aunt gave them the idea to build the hotel just the night before and they were at the beach bright and early to discuss their project.

And just in case the two youngsters forgot some detail, one would run up the beach to get an eye-full of the real thing just up the hill above the beach.

This year?s tourist entry was a rather large elephant, dominating the plot assigned to it and put together by four friends on holiday from, appropriately enough, Africa.

Bex and Charlie Milton and Nigel and Sarah Hawthorne had completed their creation long before some of the other entries had even thought of starting.

And they offered their prize of a two-night stay at Surfside up for raffle as they were flying home on Saturday night.

They told organisers they took part ?for the fun of it? and not necessarily to win anything.

The winners in the family section were the Lambs ? Larry, Kerri and Alison who built a rocket shop worthy of a blast into first place.

While the children?s section was won by the Giant Komodo Dragon built by Russel Conyers, brothers Peter and Phillip Dunlea, Ben Hart, Evan Hughes and Liam Bird.

Chief judge Malcolm Sutherland said:?It gets harder and harder to judge each year because the entries just seem to get better.

?The imagination people use is amazing.?