When a bell at the Hanwell School of Boxing rang at 7:15 pm, it announced the start of GoodGym Ealing's match against dry leaves, weeds, a pile of decomposing trimmings, and very much alive ivy. There was a plentitude of opponents to fight against, but we came with a strong team: 8 people warmed up by 3 km run or walk to the session!

The task owner, Linda, let us into the club's building to peek at the ongoing boxing class with young people sparing in the ring or practising their boxing drills. But our battle was outdoors - which we appreciated as the late spring weather was fantastic.

Our job was to tidy up the space outside the boxing school, and the task looked like a big one! Would there be another round - or could we win by knockout? No time to overthink when you are already in the ring! We went straight into action.

A.B. and Madhan swept the old leaves from the vast patch of tarmac leading to the school entrance. Chris, Harvey and Sevan freed the trees from the embrace of the ivy. Freya pulled all the weeds from the gravel area, then helped Steph Ducat, who was shovelling the pile of old cuttings. Kash took a lot of photos - and also loaded the waste into a wheelbarrow and dumped it onto a dead hedge, as Linda had lost hope that the green waste would get collected.

The result? We won with the mess by knockout! Surely, the ivy will grow back and new leaves will fall in the autumn - but we left Hanwell School of Boxing transformed and looking welcoming. We, in turn, felt welcome seeing the friendly smiles of young boxers, leaving after finishing their training session. Our match was over too, so we set off for the journey back towards Ealing Broadway.

Next week, we'll stick closer to the starting location at Bodyline, and will walk or run to the Lammas Enclosure to free saplings from the rule of nasty brambles - sign up now!

The bell has sounded at the Hanwell School of Boxing Charity. The referee being Linda and in the ring we had Good gymers against the vilains(bindweed brambles and branches). The vilains had decided to corner and cover the ropes of the car park, but Linda and the 3 goodgymers would not be counted out and tackled the over growing opponents. After 90 minutes in the ring it was an ultimate decision : knock out given to Goodgym against brambles and Company. Goodgym did not take the dive. The car park alias the ring was looking much better and Linda can get the cars to park against the fence with no issues. Emmanuella was the lucky star as found £10 while fighting the weeds, which we all decided to drop in Linda boxing school charity box. Harvey ran to the mission and found smiley in the ring. Steph Ducat moved a retired frog boxer back to the woodlands as was clearly knocked out.

Two of our gang, Kate and Harvey ran/walked to the task tonight, bumping into another GoodGymer, Caz, on her way for some light refreshments on a warm evening - luck her! Milly and Mike took a long way round to the entrance, after ending up the wrong side of the fence (there's a message in there!). After collecting tools from Linda at Hanwell School of Boxing, the four set about clearing and weeding. Four?! That should have been five! But where was Chris?! With tales of poorly performing maps, Chris found us at last and joined in.

We toiled and cleared, weeded and pulled up ivy, making the driveway up to the club look so much more presentable. After finishing up, a treat lay in store for us - Linda from the club put the kettle on and rustled up five mugs of steaming hot chocolate. Whilst we sipped, we learned about the history of Hanwell School og Boxing, the reason for its strange opening times, and some of the amazing achievements of the young people who learned the fine art of pugilism there. It's a fantastic community resource and it now has an impressive walkway up to the club.