Crossword Genius

You lovely beaches! So many? (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

thousands

'so many?' is the definition.
(thousands of something)

'you lovely beaches' is the wordplay.
'you' becomes 'thou' (historical second person pronoun).
'lovely beaches' becomes 'sands' (sands can mean a beach area).
'thou'+'sands'='THOUSANDS'

(Other definitions for thousands that I've seen before include "Crowds" , "Dan shouts out at many hundreds" , "large sum?" , "1000s" , "a lot" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app