Beach Cricket

Faced with the prospect of an open, sandy beach like this one near Golspie, our family couldn't resist....

....a game of beach cricket. While sometimes we had with us a small, child's bat we didn't need any equipment other than a few sticks or stones to form a wicket, a ball of some sort and, as in this picture, taken on an English beach, a short length of driftwood for a bat.

Ardnamurchan was a beach-cricketer's paradise, with innumerable hidden coves and miles of firm white sands. The Sanna beach on the left here was one of the best, and we....

....played on it many times, joined by good friends who had come to visit us. Note that here, appropriately for treeless Sanna, the stumps were a pile of rocks.

Sometimes, as time passed, the tide would come in, so the outfielders had to paddle around to retrieve the ball, but we only gave up when the sea encroached on the pitch.

Those were very happy days, with the sun always shining.... perhaps.