"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 weeks planning and eight and a half hours stamping out a 6x8 metre Three Lions crest on a Lowestoft beach using stones, just to have some unknown vehicle drive straight through it.
He then spent another two hours fixing it. Dedication, or madness? Probably both.
The crest that almost wasn't
Clark used a template, a grid, and string to map the design before laying it out by foot on the sand. It was ready for the tournament's opening day on Thursday — right in time for England's 21:00 kick-off against Croatia in Dallas. The vehicle incident aside, he says the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, even from people who couldn't name a single player in Gareth Southgate's squad.
This isn't his first time doing this, either. He made a chalk version of the same crest ahead of England's semi-final against Croatia at the 2018 World Cup — the one that ended in heartbreak. So there's a track record here, and it doesn't exactly inspire confidence.
Still, Clark is committed to the upside. If England lift the trophy? He'll do individual portraits of the entire squad on the beach. If they don't? He's made it clear he's not touching the restoration work again. The tide will take it eventually, and maybe that's fitting.
Suffolk's other England faithful
Clark isn't alone in going all-in before a ball has even been kicked. Down the road in Ipswich, John Goode, 64, and his daughter Rachel, 28, have strung 60 metres of bunting and eight large England flags across their home on Norwich Road. John isn't convinced England will go all the way — but Rachel frames it differently.
"It's just the fact that it brings the country together for a little while," she said. "People put everything aside and think 'Come on England'."
Which is the honest version of what every England tournament campaign actually is — less about believing, more about choosing to, just for a few weeks. Clark's beach crest will fade with the tide regardless of what happens in Dallas. England's tournament probably won't last much longer.
