After delaying this summer rounders social by two weeks due to the Euros, Sam finally got the gang together to play some rounders.

Sam and Maria hauled over the rounders kit and gazebo from their home and set up shop on the rugby pitch in Peckham Rye park. Thankfully, it was a cooler and cloudier day than the previous day, but it was still quite muggy and humid.

Dylan, Leanne and Isaac all came on time as we waited for the rest to come. By 16:45, we had everyone, but we realised only one person came from the North side of the river to represent... Lobo cycled 40 minutes from Wapping to be here. So, naturally, we had to change tactic and we divided the teams per originally from "North of London upwards" against the South:

Ninety Nine Problems, but a Northerner ain't one consisted of Lobo, Daryl, Isaac, Jess, Leanne, Adrian and Tarik (Adrian and Andrada's friend). They were against Southern Softies: Dylan, James, Eileen, Rebecca, Andrada, Natalia (Adrian and Andrada's other friend) and Maria.

It was no contest as even over 2 innings each, Ninety Nine Problems, but a Northerner ain't one scored 12 and a half rounders against 1 and a half rounders. The game was over within 30 minutes, which prompted a new layout to rounders field as the final base was too close to the backstop. Still, Ninety Nine Problems, but a Northerner ain't one thoroughly deserved the win and leads 2-1 in the yearly series.

Yet, the best was still to come... Sam felt left out and wanted to get a game in. Sam thought the numbers would be uneven, but Leanne left early, which meant we had the numbers per each team.

Splitting the teams was hard, but it ended up being GG Southwark members without Sam against Sam and the rest. "Southwark sacrificing Sam" vs. "Sam outside Southwark" - SSS vs. SOS...

The game was such a close contest with SSS putting up a big score of 10 and a half rounders to beat after two innings when SOS had only scored 4 rounders in the first innings. Yet, with a big team effort and massive runs from Lobo and Dylan, SOS managed to force a super inning as they came back to draw.

However, it was in the super innings that SSS was too strong and in one innings only, they scored 11 and a half rounders after five rounders from Isaac alone and Daryl had a couple too. Even with SOS trying their luck, they only managed 7 rounders before SSS managed to get the whole team out with a great catch from Maria to get big-scoring Lobo out!

All in all, it was such a fun afternoon with loads of us learning rounders for the first time or for the first time in many many years! Looking forward to putting on another social rounders session next summer, so look out for the listing come early 2025!

Is it coming home (it did for the Women's back in 2022)? That was the thought on everyone's mind as England's Mens team had their Semi-final game against Netherlands on the same night as our group run. Yet, 13 GoodGymers opted in for doing a good deed before the game. Sam messaged the task owner to bring the task forward and asked those who signed up to come between 18:30 - 18:40 to Old Spike Peckham, so that they could fit everything in within an hour and a half.

Tonight, we had not one, but two newbies. Well, technically, Audrey is not a newbie, but new to coming to GoodGym Southwark. However, we welcomed Hannah who came for her first good deed! Welcome!

Andrada, Cecilia, Daryl, David, Maria, Nelly, Paulin and Rosalind all came along on time as Sam started his extended speech due to the newbie and then presented his ice-breaker question. Tonight's ice-breaker was about the Euros, so he asked: "Who will win the tournament?"

Most said it would come home, but a few Spain and one Netherlands vote...

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Kick off...

We headed out without a warm-up as Sam knew he had to get to the task within 18 minutes. Paulin backmarked to ensure no one got left behind as we climbed up Chadwick Road to come down the other side to Camberwell. We made it in time to meet Zulieka and her girls as Emma arrived with her bike.

Zulieka had three tasks for us to do. We left Daryl, David and Andrada with a pile of woodchip, a wheelbarrow and a tonne bag in a shopping trolley to move to a site where woodchip needed to be laid. As we went around the estate, Adrian and Audrey with two pairs of shears were given the task to cut back a tree/bush in order for the residents to get to a watering unit as the hot summer days are a head of us and plants would need to be watered. The rest of the group went around the corner to weed a garden bed that was temporarily taken care of by the council, but they didn't finish the job. Using hand tools and shears, Cecilia, Emma, Hannah, Maria, Nelly, Paulin and Rosalind took of the task of transforming this space within 25 minutes.

Running around to ensure all groups were fine, Sam counted the clock down as there was a hard stop at 19:30 to ensure the team could run back in time to see the start of the game. However, Zulieka wanted help to take back the tools and two wooden pallets she found on the estate, so we duly did so before rushing off back towards Peckham. The boys probably clocked a few PBs as they sprinted the 3k run back to Old Spike as we had a table booked in 80-20 wines next door. Everyone arrived just in time for the kick-off...

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night. A very quick session due to the football, but we did get a lot done in the 30 minutes that we were there for. Zulieka sends her thanks and looks forward to see us next month. Kudos to all and if I don't see you next week, see you soon!

It started to feel more like summer as Sam opened up Old Spike for Maria, Steve, Lindy, Cecilia, Gemma, Daryl and newbie, Robin. We welcomed Robin in after he came last week to do his document checks, but was raring to give GoodGym a try. Sam knew a few GoodGymers would meet him at Dawson's Heights, so as 18:45 arrived, he got going with his usual speech, but added extra bits for Robin to hear. Yet, before leaving Old Spike, his ice-breaker question which was to do with UN's Refugee Day, was: "What one item would you take with you if you had to leave your home immediately due to a war?"

Many of us opted for a phone whilst others had power bank, passports, swiss knife, backpack (empty, of course) and even a bicycle...

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Berry Fun: mulching, watering and moving top soil

As we headed out to the Green to warm-up, Steve volunteered to back-mark to ensure no one would be left behind. After the warm-up, Sam led from the front taking the most direct route to Dawson's Heights, which included running up Underhill and then Overhill Road.

At the site, we met up with Ellie and some of the Dawson's Heights residents as well as Olive, Emma, Nathan, Andrada and Adrian.

This time around, Ellie had a few tasks for us to do. Firstly, Adrian, Daryl, Nathan, Robin and Steve took on the heavy lifting job of moving tonnes of top soil to fill two deep planters that hadn't been filled the last time we came. Andrada and Lindy followed the boys as they needed to get buckets and buckets of woodchip to help mulch the area around the berry saplings to give them a fighting chance and grow into big berry bushes! The third task involved untangling the hose pipe and feeding it to the water tank that had been recently installed. Emma and Maria put up their hands to do this job, which was rewarded with watering the plants afterwards. Finally, the fourth job was attended by Cecilia, Gemma and Olive. They went around the site to collect grass cuttings as this would be used in their compost.

The 40 minutes went by in a flash and we were all rewarded for our efforts with warm peanut butter cookies!

After our customary group photo, we dashed off quickly to see London's skyline from Dawson's Hill before we ventured back to Old Spike. We had an impromptu social at Herne Tavern as we were invited by Peckham Rye Junior parkrun team and volunteers, who were glad to see our group.

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night. A massive thank you to everyone for getting stuck into whatever task you were given - sometimes we are spoilt for choice. Thank you to Robin for coming for your first GoodGym session and hope to see you again. Kudos to all and if I don't see you next week, see you soon!

Today, 5 Goodgymmers went to help out at Surrey Docks Farm. After a slow start, we found Pat, who gave us a series of sweeping tasks. Pat told us that was particularly impactful because the farm some troubles with drainage, so sweeping the paths meant that dirt and hay won't get washed away in the rain causing blocked drains.

We worked like a team on one of those cleaning transformation shows on TV, turning paths, gutters and goat yards sparkling clean. We made 5 wheelbarrows of dirt/poo/hay and we took them down to the muck heap. The goat yard had baby goats in, which was different to usual.

At the end, we had a special treat to see the "orphaned" lambs and then we fed the sheep and the goats.