Tracey popped along to the T20 cricket match of Derbyshire Falcons versus Leicestershire Foxes to help out at the Family Day. She was part of the team looking after the inflatables, and was in charge of what seemed to be the most popular activity – Kick and Stick. People could aim Velcro footballs at a Velcro dartboard to give them a score. Some of the little children preferred throwing to kicking and were absolutely delighted to see the balls stick to the board. The hard part was retrieving the balls ready for the next customer; the dartboard was HUGE, with treble three being at about head height. Luckily there was a pole to help pull the balls down the board to a level where they could be reached. It all went well until someone hit double top, and then she had to call in for assistance from a helpful bystander, as it was just too high!

There were four busy hours, but unfortunately for the queue that had gathered, the afternoon heat turned out to be just too much for the generator keeping the inflatables inflated, and one by one they collapsed. Several attempts to adjust the generator resulted in only partial success, and the activities had to close down slightly early.

The heat put a few people off turning up at Parkinson's Cricket today, but there were four brave and happy souls who were up for everything that Alex from DCF had to offer. They began with a game of Boccia, with its distinctively tinkly balls, and once everyone was warmed up they moved onto batting and bowling.

With only me as a fielder, I had my work cut out, and was lucky enough to manage a few catches with the aid of a net (anything to avoid bending!).

As usual, things ended with tea, biscuits and a good chat.

Tracey helped the lovely Miss S to organise and tidy her shed, making her tools more accessible. In the process, she disturbed many webs, but only a single spider, who must have been extremely busy!

Tracey and Gwyn cycled over in the summer heat to meet the happy crowd at DCF's Monday Mates. As an additional challenge this week, the lift was being repaired, so there was an uphill battle at the outset. It was fixed by the end though, and we all had a good time.

Today at Parkinson's Cricket, Alex set up a "coconut shy" on the stage, with balls balanced on cones for the players to knock off. Everyone then formed a circle and practised throwing and catching with different sized balls in different directions. They finished off with bowling at a wicket, which kept me very busy collecting all the balls.

Tracey and Gwyn met the gang at DCF's Parkinson's Cricket. We started by bending cahirs back into shape, then had a throwing game targeted at cones and progressed to bowling at stumps in coned zones. A session of chatting, tea and biscuits finished a good morning.