What a beautiful morning to help out the newly formed Friends of Victoria Recreation ground who had sought the assistance of ID Verde to litter pick and chop back various areas of the park. After a brief introduction and safety briefing from long time friend of GoodGym, Elliott Newton (Kingstons' own biodiversity officer), we were grouped into our own bio bubbles of 6 or so to tackle specific areas.

New balls please.

Us 5 GoodGymers, including fresh off the plane Martel and quickly becoming a regular, Freya, set to work on an area just behind the tennis courts, that had wheely bin neglected for a long time now. But we soon put a lid on it. From bike frames, to wheely bin lids, piles of door handles and lots and lots of tennis balls, there was more than your usual plastic bottles and crisp packets littering the place.

Next match was all the overgrown hedges and our old adversaries - the brambles. Armed with loppers and bow saw, we (backhand)sliced and (forehand) smashed our way through it all, till there was so much more (sp)ace to move around in. Meanwhile outside the court, Hannah, sporting a pair of bright shorts that would have seen the Wimbledon crowd swooning, set about chopping the big bits into little bits and putting them into ton bags for easy disposal.

But it wasn't quite game set and match yet. There was a new game to be played involving a few sets of goal posts. Covered in ivy and brambles, Kate got into the swing of it with a billund from one end and Rob ran through the stiff defence the ivy was putting up, from the other. Freya then showed her strength by moving the goal posts just in time for the final whistle to sound. With massive improvements, we'd cleared a lot of broom to get to the hidden litter. Massive thanks to all involved, it was a classic smash and grab task by GoodGym, where our efforts were noticed by many. Thanks to Elliot and the Friends of Victoria Rec for organising, rematch in a month or so?