Anyone for cricket?

The bump in the Solent reveals itself. Pictures by thedailysail and Mark Lloyd

With super spring tides the Bramble Bank in the Solent revealed itself on Sunday – and the sound of leather on willow replaced the shout of ‘water!’ for a hour or so.

The highly competitive match between the Island Sailing Club of Cowes and the Royal Southern Yacht Club of Hamble was won by the mainland team from Hamble, although it seemed that all players were happy to get their hand on the champagne at the end of the short match.

The Brambles Bank, on which most Solent sailors have run aground on at some point in their careers, revealed itself in big spring tides. With the Beaulieu Boat Jumble just around the corner it was disappointing not to find any winch handles. Low water Portsmouth was at 18.44 BST at a level of just 0.6m, resulting in a range of 4.2m from high water at 13.19 BST.

VIPs spotted on the Brambles included Harold Cudmore, Tom Richardson, Ed Danby and Glenn Bourke.

For those keen racers who did not get out to the Bank it was noted that the Brambles Post lies some 100m east of the shallowest parts – perhaps a race winning piece of local knowledge…

To view the video of proceedings (for Windows Media Player) click here.

More photos on the following pages.