Blocked toilets and tobacco stained light bulbs (From Daily Echo)

Blocked toilets and tobacco stained light bulbs

6:00am Saturday 2nd January 2010

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UNBLOCKING toilets and changing light bulbs are just two of the tasks allocated to the president of Shirley Working Men’s Social Club.

Alan Donovan (“I never lost an election”) held the post three times between 1980 and 1998.

Donovan, now 74 and a former chairman of the Southampton & District Social Clubs League, recalled one of his jobs was replacing dead light bulbs and cleaning those stained by tobacco smoke.

Andy Brooke, described by Donovan as the “new boy”, was elected at his third attempt this year.

Within weeks of taking office, the 46-year-old proved his worth by removing a rather stubborn blockage in the toilets.

This impressed club secretary Alyson Totten, 46.

“If he sees something that needs doing he’ll get on and do it,” she said. “You can’t always afford to get people in.”