We all gathered under a nice tree outside the Hub cafe at 10am but thankfully the shade wasn’t needed from the threatening rain as we enjoyed a couple of hours of somewhat competitive but mostly sociable rounders with only the mild “threat of rain” lurking in the background.

Teams were picked with the age old 1,2,1,2 around a circle method and for simplicity of the report and by coincidence one team had Aine and one team had Stephen as the co-organisers of the event so we will refer to them by that name!

Everyone helped set up the team and Aine gave a high level run through of the rules and point system - one point if you get a home run, half point if you make it home otherwise.

We did one game of one round batting each, followed by two rounds of combined batting (or if we had three outs, whatever comes first). The teams were well matched and everyone was warming up nicely with the skills improving massively over the hour. There was a lot of “oh wow that was harder than it looked!” Uttered across the pitch. Stephen’s team won the first game 12.5 to 10.5. This was followed by a “bat until you're out” round where Aine’s team triumphed mostly due to Leo’s amazing skills behind the batter to knock out the team in record time.

We then finished with one quick game of one bat each but the in the aim of socialness we didn’t really keep score (although all agreed it was probably Aines team that won ;) )

Everyone brought a few friends, Stephen being the winner of that the unintended competition with 5 as he proudly declared.

Each team had a home run king in Leo and Nathan but all round everyone played brilliantly and enjoyed a full match debrief over a coffee in the Hub cafe afterwards.

We’re hoping to arrange another game in August. If you have ideas for social squad ideas please get in touch!

Report written by Aine, and photos from Aine and John.

It's only been circa 6 months since I did a GoodGym task and it was so damn good to be back.

Aaron, Paul and myself jogged over to Abbey Gardens, summarising our previous half year in typically understated british adjectives, 'alright', 'decent', 'not bad', but we got to catch up, which was a treat. Hils was a step ahead of us, the lucky lass lives just around the corner, a mere stone throw from the ruins of a cistercian abbey, you just can't put a price on that, can you?

Our instructions were clear cut and ruthless, tear down the excess foliage covering the ruins. Got it? Yes, yes we did. Yasser and Phoebe made us up to 5. Yasser's first task I'll have you know, reckon there's plenty more in him, good luck on your virtual Half Marathon, pal - sub 3 glory is yours for the taking. We starting clearing and ripping at the weeds, Pablo tore down a tonne of brambles, Hils was precision in motion, working meticulously on the borders. Phoebe The Perfectionist was doing her thing too, valiantly pushing through in spite of spiders and slugs, a true urban hero. Myself, Aaron and Yasser did the other stuff, foot soldiers, doing our bit.

The post task view was great, a real visual treat displaying an hour of work, socialising and jesting. We got given some goody bags at the end, imagine if you went to a young Alan Titchmarsh's birthday party, this is the 'party bag' contents you would've got: rocket, chard, sunflowers, potatoes and BeeBombs. A lovely touch from our friends at Abbey Garden. There's a new energy and youth there driving change, watch this space.

Nice one for getting involved, but the pleasure was all mine.

Till next time,

B