PIRELLI pals Ernie Moody and Bob Collis have always enjoyed their chat over a pint at the cablemaking company's sports and social club at Eastleigh.

Between them their club membership service adds up to nearly 100 years. But on Friday it will come to an emotional end when time is called on the Pirelli Sports and Social Club.

Axing most of its manufacturing operation on Leigh Road also sounded the death knell of the popular club at The Pavilion in Dew Lane.

One of the most popular clubs in town, it has been the cablemakers' favourite watering hole for 75 years.

Ernie, 79, who lives at the nearby Nightingale Avenue Estate, and Bob, 70, whose home is on the Velmore Estate, have many happy memories of the club which they say will linger for many years.

"There been the great camaraderie between individual people and the competitiveness between the various sports sections," said Ernie who has been a member for more than 40 years and for almost all that time ran the savings club.

Bob, who started as an apprentice with Pirelli, has been a member for 53 years and says: "It will be sad to see the club close.

"This club has been about people and so many families have worked at Pirelli's."

He said the club's social activities have ranged from football to having its own choral society.

It will also be a sad moment for 53 year-old Charlie Egerton when he pulls the last pint on Friday night and calls time on what has been an Eastleigh way of life.

For Charlie has been the club steward for 20 years. At its height the club had a membership of between 4,000 and 5,000. In recent years social and drinking habits have had an impact on numbers.

However, that strong community spirit has always been there and it is reflected in the club's fund raising for charity.

For over 18 years the Pirelli club members have raised a total of more than £22,000 for the NSPCC.

Charlie has just handed over the latest cheque to Keith Crate, the charity's community appeals manager for Hampshire.

Keith said: "There has been an outstanding commitment over the years from the club to the NSPCC."

Money has been raised with various events from charity nights to 24 hour sponsored snooker. Charlie has also thrown himself into the fundraising. He has been a solo Chippendale act, had rotten tomatoes thrown at him and once ran three times around the Pirelli sports field in November just wearing boxer shorts.

An Abba tribute night and a disco will be the swansong on Friday night for the Pirelli club.

Ernie and Bob will be there to sup their last pint at the Pirelli bar.

Those Pirelli pals have already made arrangements to carry on with their chatter over a pint at another club in the town.

Memories of those happy Pirelli club days will no doubt be still in full flow.