Vigo celebrate their promotion to the London leagues

Vigo are celebrating winning promotion to the London leagues for the first time in their history.

The Meopham side will play in London 3 South East next season after a nervy 10-7 victory in their play-off with Burgess Hill on Saturday.

Vigo, who qualified for the play-off after finishing runners-up in Kent 1, edged home in terrible conditions thanks to a try by Jamie Caton and a penalty and a conversion by Dave Winstone.

Director of rugby Andy Carslaw said: "It was tense, to put it mildly. The weather didn’t help but we scraped home in the end.

"We created two or three good chances but we didn’t take them and towards the end Burgess Hill were camped near our line but we managed to hang on."

Carslaw, who is also the village club’s groundsman, added: "In 2000 the club were two weeks away from folding and we’ve come a long way since then. When you look at some of the teams we are going to play next season, like Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells, it’s unbelievable."

Carslaw said much of the credit for the success was due to Vigo’s joint coaches, Mark Robinson and Elliot Blackmore, who took over from him at the end of last season.

He said: "They have brought a real professional ethic to the club which the players have bought into."