A HOLE GROWS IN HOLGATE: And a huge bugger of a hole it was – and cosmically sudden. I, for one, had never seen the likes and was tickled pink – whatever the hell that means nowadays. (Wink/wink, nod/nod. Say no more.)

One minute we had our usual piece of inlet fishing beach beneath our feet, when, in a rapidly expanding eddy of outgoing tidal water, we were scrambling to safely distance our buggies – and bodies – from what can best be described as a swiftly advancing circle of collapsing sand…