The main task was to clear the leaves from the basketball court and paths to stop them getting slippery. We started by lifting up a couple of the leaf bins to see if there was any leaf mulch that could be dug onto the beds. There was a small amount of older matter but it was mostly very dry. Becca dug a wheelbarrow full of the best bits into the beds. Amy and Laura started by emptying and resetting two of the leaf bins. Sam and Barbara swept the basketball court and David swept and cleared around the drains and attempted to unblock them of soil. Whilst all this was going on Jane pruned the two large apple trees, the blackcurrant bush and the Jasmine. Once the basketball court was mostly clear we managed to clear most of the leaves from the paths and start clearing some of the beds before the end of the hour.

Some fresh meat (aka Amy and Jan ) joined for our monthly session at the Oaks. We started off with some easy parachute games to warm up the arms, and the competition.

It wasn’t long before we had multiple balls, of all sizes, thrown in all directions with the parachute and we were ready to test ourselves with a target game.

Ed blew up the inflatable target board and we began practising our ball throwing. Mrs Z got out there early with a high score of 6, whilst many of us struggled to even get 1. Different tactics were thrown about and soon we were ready to start the (now official) GoodGym vs. Hartrigg Oaks championships.

Round One - balls: a hopeful start for GG with 14 points on the board. However, our dreams were swiftly shattered when the Oaks scored 9 with their first 3 goes! The Oaks took the lead with 17-14.

Round Two - beanbags: it’s probably best to skip past this one as the Oaks won by an astounding amount. No one is really sure of just how much because there was some questionable maths happening in judges corner.

Round Three - football: we learnt that the Oaks can kick! We had the giant football flying in all directions and ended with a satisfying draw.

Final score: Oaks 3-1 GG.

We’ll be back next month after we’ve recovered our dignity and brushed up on our skills.

Tonight's GoodGym York Group Run saw us returning to the wildflower meadow at Clarence Gardens to clear the flowers that we had previously sown. We started the night with a bonus litterpicking task in the surrounding area, before getting stuck into the main event with a bumper turnout for an autumn night. Imen had joined the litterpickers for her first ever GoodGym task before deciding to stay on and stick around for the group run. We also welcomed Georgina along for her first ever session. Give them both a big cheer!

Tonight we were finally able to presentJenna with the cape of Good Deeds a little bit later than we should have (so sorry!) but still gave her a big round of applause for competing her 400th task. What an incredible achievement. And we also said well done to Richard who had completed his first ever cross country run at the weekend. Quite remarkable for a man who has done most things imaginable running-wise!

It was then off to the task with Mitch leading a small walking contingent and Nikki backmarking the main group. We were joined at the task by Cara, Jan, James and taskowner Iain who got us underway with some very simple instructions. Basically rake up all of the arisings and shift them over to the skip by any means necessary. Before long there were tonne sacks, wheelbarrows and tarps being moved left, right and centre and the skip started to get full, although a fair chunk of the space was taken up by a buried Mitch! In fairness Mitch and Pete did a cracking job of stomping down the skip so we could continue to fit more in, clearly impressing taskowner Iain who was planning where we could start a new pile once the skip got full.

Before you knew it, it was time to put the tools down and pose for a group photo before this evenings fitness sesh which involved teams of three running in opposite directions, or completing some exercises before then having to meet up again around a coloured cone, where they were then rewarded with a rest or punished with even more exercises. The activity required a lot less explaining than i'd imagined and seemed to work despite some groans from everyone one they realised they all had to complete burpees at the end regarldess of which cone they were stood around.

All in all the gang of GGers shifted a huge load of the arisings, but there's still plenty more to do so we'll be back later in November to finish the job