Last night, 10 Goodgymers met at the Community Centre for a pre-match pep talk before heading off to tackle tasks awaiting us at Holyport FC.

Once there, we split into two teams, armed ourselves with shovels and paintbrushes (not at the same time, although I’d like to see what that task would be) and the game began!

Team Shingle was well practiced at making pothills out of mountains from our previous matches here. They managed to get rid of two piles of shingle by hiding them in potholes along the access road to the pitches, before the final whistle was blown.

Meanwhile, it was a total eclipse of the fence as Team Painters covered a lot of ground (and fences), but finally won the day when the paint went in off the woodwork to seal the victory with a dazzling display of beautiful brushwork.

There was no need to go into overtime, even though we’d probably have like to - by the end of the night, the match was won by both teams. Another three points to Goodgym, which we were all over the moon about!

Last night 11 GoodGymmers assembled at the Maidenhead Community Centre for our usually #wednesdaynightisgoodgymnight group run. The walkers set off for the 2km shortly followed by the 4 runners after they’d completed a quick warm up. Angela and Gillian led the run whilst Sophie and Kelley covered the back and soon the runners had arrived at Holyport FC where task owner and GoodGym member Louise was waiting for us. Soon after arriving we heard some twit-too’ing in the trees and swiftly realised we may need to come up with a wh-owl load of puns! But that didn’t ruffle our feathers in the pitch black night and off we set down the pothole covered driveway to gather our tools. Shortly we noticed an array of lights heading our way – it was either an army of very large fireflies or the walkers had arrived! The task was to shovel the shingle into the potholes – one we have become very familiar with! We all set to work armed with shovels, forks and wheelbarrows but one of the barrows was considerably harder to manoeuvre due to a flat tyre. We took it in turns to share the load with the dodgy barrow! After around 45 minute of hard graft the walkers and runners both set off back to the community centre and said our goodbyes , until the next adventure!

We skipped the rain tonight for our pot-holing task supporting Holyport football club. After warming up at the Co-op Jess led the walkers to the meeting point whilst Amanda led the runners. The group met at "the tree" to do a lovely meet and retreat loop of a local housing estate. They must have thought we were bonkers squating in the road at our half-way point but we had a giggle. Louise was having a bit of a Blair Witch moment waiting alone for us at the task so we hopped to it and went to meet her. Claire, Rachel, and Scarlett got cracking shovelling a mountain of gravel from a large pile into the holes on the road. Matthew did some great work wheel barrowing and Sol was relentless at unloading it and ensuring the road was level - great work team!

Mandy opted for the "hands on" approach further down the path whilst Jess and Emily worked so hard raking and smoothing out the bumps in the road. Remarkably, no one fell in any puddles or slipped on the way in or way out.

Our fun fitness session tonight took us all back to our youth with kiddie party games which had everyone in stitches. Jess' team won but the second round was a very close match!

What a fun task this was - lots of "high ho" moments. The road is much more accessible but there is still lots more to be done so this won't be our last session here - and hopefully it won't be the last of the dry ones here either!

7 goodgymers made their way to Holyport Football club this evening to help give the dug outs a fresh coat of paint and to help clear masses of vegetation that had been cut back

Our usual missions to Holyport usually involve pot hole filling in the pouring rain so this was a refreshing change

Jen and Mandy started the task of clearing the shrubbery and hoofing it via wheelbarrow to the designated resting place at the top of the field. Meanwhile Louise, Jess, Roberta, Diya and Kanika made a start on the painting

After 90 minutes, we had a large amount of shrubbery moved and both dug outs, Louise’s face and Jess’s glasses painted a lovely shade of army green. We were then able to admire the view while Jess enjoyed a well earned rest on the bench

It was then time for obligatory cookies and to make our way home

Thanks to Lou for the Royally appropriate title pun, and thanks to Anna for singing a little ditty to inspire the bulk of this evening's report...

We were meant to be helping Wild Eton Wick this evening, but had a last minute cancellation. So thank goodness Holyport FC got in touch! The conversation unfolded a bit like this:

There are pot-holes in our access road, dear GoodGym, dear GoodGym, there are pot-holes in our access road, dear GoodGym, pot-holes!

With what shall we fix them, dear Holyport FC, dear Holyport FC, with what shall we fix them, dear Holyport, with what?

With shingle, spades and barrows, dear GoodGym, dear GoodGym, with shingle, spades and barrows, dear GoodGym, with shingle!

We'll also need some cookies, dear Holyport, dear Holyport, we'll also need some cookies, dear Holyport, cookies!

There are only so many 'dear GoodGyms' and 'dear Holyports' I can type before I start to lose the plot, so I'll keep it short.

In the end, we didn't just tackle the task with great gusto, and eat cookies (thanks Lou!), we also had an energetic (and surprisingly dry) run/walk to and from the task, took selfies with a Royal cow, talked a lot about food, sang songs about buttercups and Snow White, did a quick fitness circuit including boxing and the can can, read poetry and chatted about social visits. All in all, a (pot)hole lotta fun!

Awesome to see such a big group out despite horrible weather and especially great to meet Amy, who was GoodGyming for the first time.

As we chatted and warmed up outside Coop the rain got steadily heavier and heavier, and we wondered whether we were completely mad to be contemplating staying outside for a run or walk and pothole filling session.

We were drenched within minutes of setting off, but we soon got the blood pumping and endorphins flowing and there were plenty of smiles as we powered through our 'meet and retreat' session at Sandringham Rd.

By the time we arrived at Holyport FC the U14s game looked to have been rained off, but we couldn't get any wetter, so why not grab some tools and spend half an hour filling potholes (aka puddles)!? I challenged everyone to keep track of how many wheelbarrows worth of shingle we shifted, but we soon lost count. Special mentions to Kate, who wrestled lots of brambles out of the shingle pile and Diya, who did a great job loosening the shingle with a fork.

In 30 minutes we made a significant dent in the shingle heap, reduced the potholes along a decent stretch of the lane, had lots of laughs and provided some entertainment for a family whose dining room provided a view of our shenanigans.

It was now time to find some shelter in the boardroom, eat some cookies, and get cracking on our second (surprise!) task for the evening....making Easter decorations for Clewer Green first School. I gave everyone an egg made of card and we had a lovely creative time using paint sticks and crayons to draw zig zags, bunnies and flowers. The eggs will be strung together as a garland to help decorate the school for their Bunny Bingo fundraiser.

All in all, we had an eggcellent time despite the wet. Huge thanks to Lou for inviting us to the club for a pothole lotta fun and laughs, and for treating us to the cookies. Well done team on a cracking evening!