After a warm and sunny day in South West London the weather gods took their revenge with a chilly one under zero cloud cover, as a trusty band of jolly Goodgymers were put through their paces with Mark’s “fun for some” warm-up. Way too many crouching exercises Mark, and please stop winning so convincingly when we’re matched up for your slap each other’s knees or put each other off balance games… We then headed off up the hill and past Richmond Park entrance on our mission, nattering all the way and putting the world to rights after England slipped up in the rugby on the weekend. After rolling down the hill we stopped off close to “our” flowerbed at Buccleuch Gardens (still looking a little light on greenery) and picked up brooms, secateurs and litter-pickers, then headed on to the area of park off Old Palace Lane where some serious tidying up was the order of the evening and talk of some hedge trimming too!

Fresh from our walk (safety first when carrying sharp tools – or did we just want to linger a little as we passed Gaucho?) and undaunted by the dark and shadowy areas, the merry band of Goodgymers flipped their headtorches to full beam and got stuck in. HOLD on look at the size of that sprawling hedge and we have how many tools?? OK so now the focus for most was stripping back and clearing the hordes of tall dead weeds around the hedge, and clearing them off to the bushes, and it wasn’t long before all the spiky fellows had seen their last. Others headed off into the murky areas down towards the river to find and pick some fairly dodgy-looking litter (corned beef, anyone?), and a few even swept the front pavements. Plenty more work awaits us if we schedule another group run, but we left feeling pretty pleased with ourselves.

Fun photo done, we set off back along the riverside – at “Caribbean pace” according to Mark – and deposited tools before heading back up to town via the notorious Nightingale Lane climb… that is to say most of the group did while your humble narrator did his usual trick of slinking off home for an early shower…