GoodGym United

More photos to be uploaded from Chi.

24 GoodGymers and a few non-GG friends gathered in Victoria Park by The People's Park Tavern to enjoy a socially competitive round robin rounders tournament.

Unlike the first tournament in Clapham Common last month, the weather showed up and brought us blistering heat and sun! One could be mistaken that we were in a park in Spain, Italy or France 😳

With the gazebo set up and rounders set laid out, all we needed to do was put on some summer tunes and wait for everyone to show up.

One by one and in groups, GoodGymers from across London (from Hammersmith & Fulham to Bromley and from Haringey to Lambeth) gathered in the predetermined spot. It was a "first come, first placed in your team area". Sam knew there weren't going to be more than 30 people, so the original idea of four teams playing semis, 3rd/4th place and a final was scratched and replaced with a round robin tournament of three teams with the third team being a mix match of GoodGymers from all areas - GoodGym United.

The defending Champions were on first. "Ninety Nine Problems but a Northerner ain't one" decided to pitch first as the "Southern Softies" fielded. In the first game, we decided to do two innings as the first innings went by in a flash. Northerners scored 3 rounders as the Southerners replied with 6 & 1/2 rounders. Yet, after a water break, the Northerners used the blaring sun to turn on the heat by going 6 rounders ahead. It was a tense and long second innings for Southern Softies as they were four players down and still needed to score 1 & 1/2 rounders to win! Marta got the first 1/2 rounder and then Sam stepped up to the plate to score and showboat the winning rounder (to umpire Jonathan dislike).

We reduced the second and third game to one innings as that second innings from the first game took forever to complete!

Southern Softies wasted no time and were on against GoodGym United who batted first and scored an unbeatable 13 rounders with half of it coming from big hitting Ed. Southern Softies reply was just a 3 rounders and 5 players were out before the ninth player Sam could even bat! 😳

GoodGym United showed us that they were the team to beat as they had a good setup in fielding and in batting.

The final game was GoodGym United against the defending champions "99 problems but a Northerner ain't one". If the defending champs won, it would have been all square for wins and losses for each team, but it wasn't to be! Fast spinner Denise, backstop Ed and first base Emma had an effective system like they did against "Southern Softies". They reduced "99 problems but a Northerner ain't one" to 3 & 1/2 rounders. So it was only time that the team made up of members from the North & South of the river plus non-GGers would hit 4 & 1/2 rounders to claim the trophy - a Prosecco shower 🍾💦

• 1st: GoodGym United - 2 wins out of 2
• 2nd: Southern Softies - 1 win out of 2
• 3rd: 99 problems but a Northerner ain't one - 0 wins out of 2

Congratulations to GoodGym United: Laura (team captain), Emma, Bella, Denise, Vicki, Darren, Ivy, Ceiling and player of the tournament, Ed

Thanks to everyone for showing up and getting into a very social and respectful tournament of rounders! It was a pleasure to organise and until next time, take care!