After a 2 mile jog interspersed with double back sprints we arrived at the Bonney Rd Allotments in complete darkness.

We met up with our taskmaster Liam and were led deep into the heart of the allotment into even more darkness.

There were some heavy slabs to dig up and load into a trailer, a shed to empty and its contents moved to a polytunnel for storage, and some trees to be pulled up. Headtorches on, the group set to. Lindsay, Katy Michaela and Rachel showed us all that these girls can with some serious strongarm stuff - Stu acted as chief trailer loader as the ladies dug out, levered up, barrowed and rocked the old slabs across to the trailer to be taken..... who knows where?

The team of Tree, Jen, Jim and Nic disappeared off further down the plot - all we could hear was the talk of lunatics and taproots - not really sure what Liam was on about but they made short work of digging up a line of trees then emptying the shed.

Time flew by and most people seemed to forget about the fact it was a cold dark January night.

I think Liam thought we could stay till midnight! - I am sure I told him we could only do half an hour but I will check to see why he thought we would be there longer. Notwithstanding we had pretty much filled the trailer with slabs and the shed was empty.

And then we were asked the impossible - "lets lift the shed and put it on top of the trailer" - err No! - Had to pull the plug on that one on health and safety grounds. All of us, in the light, over flat ground...maybe, but four of us in the dark over a minefield of uneven soil littered with old bricks and other obstacles - dont think so.

Despite the confusion over timing Liam was very grateful for us giving his new plot a head start and has invited us back for more as soon as we are able.

The run back revealed that we have some very capable sprinters in our midst - you know who you are Katy, Lindsay and Stu! The uphill jog backs to Mel who was at the tail seemed to work really well - it was very important to keep the group together on such a dark route and this seemed a neat solution to the problem of doing so with a wide pace range group.

Well done all - hard work on task and on the run which is exactly how it should be.