Wednesday evening saw a slightly earlier than usual GoodGym mission to Hearing Help Essex, Meadow View Cottage. The earlier start was carefully planned to accommodate what we all hoped would be a memorable World Cup football evening. Sadly, some hopes and dreams were left lying on the pitch later that night.

We gathered at 6pm, ready for what could only be described as an epic endurance challenge. By "epic endurance challenge", I of course mean a gentle jog run in the heat. There were three runners taking on the journey: Andy, Rich and myself.

This was my first outing as Run Leader, with Rich acting as my mentor throughout the evening. Think Obi-Wan guiding a slightly confused Luke Skywalker, only with fewer lightsabres and considerably more conversations about football.

We discussed Andy’s football gathering (or "gav" if you're still young enough to know what that means), where apparently gourmet pizzas were being offered to the Good Gym lads. Meanwhile, Rich shared tales of a non-refundable wedding booking from several years ago along with his and Jane’s upcoming vows in a few weeks.

We got stuck into tackling the ever-ambitious weeds in the garden. Armed with determination, gardening gloves and varying levels of horticultural expertise, we made a real difference to the space. There was some discussion on whether they were weeds or a plants.

There was certainly hard work involved, although any references to blood, sweat and tears are probably attributed to events later in the evening involving football rather than gardening.

Poor Sallyann did not get the memo about the change of time and reached us as we coming to a close, but it was lovely to see her.

After a productive session and successful community task completed, we headed home feeling pleased with our efforts and still high on hopes of bringing the World Cup home.

A thanks to Jedi Master Rich for helping this rookie Run Leader survive her first mission. The Force was definitely with us.

Jesus it was basically a one person show. Walker arrived separately to the runners, and did an insane amount while everyone else tidied in the wake of the good work.

Obviously i am talking about Jane, not Rich who showed up late with his most flattering lycra. Jane was a one woman shearing army, not seen such devastation with shears since Andy took his last haircut. Ben made picking up piles of thorns look very easy, great commitment to the cause.

They were very impressed with the job we did on a hot day, shoutout to Sallyann who had to endure me somehow hitting her constantly with a rake.

On the way back we stopped for a brief ice cream break, Leanne stopping the dithering men by shouting SOLERO at the freezer.

I am excited for next week - task and beer fest - but not as excited as Russell is for Binface to hopefully win the by-election.

Who wanted to watch England play in the World Cup anyway?! Not us. When we set off England were 1-0 down, but on our run to the task we heard a loud roar, and Ben ducked into The Wheatsheaf to check that, yes, England had equalised.

The lovely garden at Hearing Help needed weeding, especially the lawn, which was a bit of a jungle. Rich and Jess got the tools out, and after a quick safety briefing of DON'T GO NEAR THE HEMLOCK! we started pulling up weeds.

Another loud roar soon told us that England was now 2-1 up.

Ben and Martin got straight on it, I was distracted by a low flying kestrel but eventually put my bird app away and started work.

Fay and Sallyann arrived on foot, and together we filled a big rubble bag with weeds, and left a nice patch of cleared lawn for Hearing Help to enjoy.

We had nearly finished when Andy turned up. He's settling into retirement so well he's forgotten what time it is.

When the tools were away, we watched the house martins flying round the mill, and went home to watch the highlights.