FOR a team that insists it’s just a social night out, Southampton RBL’s cribbage side made a pretty good fist of celebrating their first league win since October 15 last year.

After their 5-4 home victory over Riverside Club A, skipper Richard Young, 67, declared: “It’s an absolute joy.

“We’ve never got out of the bottom division and we’re certainly not getting out of it this year. We’ll still be here next week; we’ll still be here next season.”

Indeed, Southampton RBL have spent 20 seasons in the bottom division of the Southampton & District Social Clubs League.

“We’ve got a reasonably good nucleus now,” added Young, who is also the club’s sports secretary.

The club, in the shadow of the multi-storey car park in Eastgate Street, recently invested in a new £30,000 bar.

Archie Parsons, a member for 26 years and club secretary for 18, said: “If you allow the premises to deteriorate, the members won’t come in.

“Our biggest problem is we’ve got Wetherspoon outside our back door. We can’t compete.

“We make visitors welcome and we hope they’ll come back - they don’t always, but sometimes they do.”

Ken Whittington, in his third year as chairman, said: “A lot of people want Foster’s. If we take Foster’s away, they won’t come in the club. It’s a job to satisfy everybody.”