A COUPLE are celebrating their diamond wedding anniversary, after first meeting at a village get together.

For Peter and Marguerite Stevens, it was love at first sight when he asked her for a dance at Yarnton village hall in Oxfordshire.

Mrs Stevens, 82, said: “I was about to go home with my friend as the dance was quiet with not many people having turned up when Peter walked in and asked me to dance I said yes, although it was a bit dark and I couldn’t see him very well.

“We met the next day for our first date and went to a cinema in Oxford to see a film about living in a caravan but I can’t remember the name of it. It was funny as at the start of our marriage that’s exactly what we did do! Within five weeks of meeting, Peter said we’d have to wait at least four years to get married but we decided to get married after just over a year.”

They have lived in Worcester since 1964, moving so Mr Stevens could take up work as a surveyor for Worcestershire County Council.

Mrs Stevens added: “The secret to a happy marriage is that you have to be adaptable, to be able to cope with things.

Mr Stevens, 85, joked: “The secret is doing what my wife tells me.”

Mrs Stevens added: “When Peter qualified as a first class cricket umpire early into our marriage, travelling around the country to matches, that was tough.”

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A family get together is taking place today in Hay-on-Wye at a rented house, with all but one of their extended family being there.

Neither of them will let on what presents they will exchange with each other.

The Queen even sent her congratulations in a card, wishing them well.

The pair have no plans of slowing down. Mrs Stevens runs a mobility class at St John’s Library and Mr Stevens still loves to get out on the field for part of a match for the Fossils Cricket Club.

The couple have three children, Jennifer, Robin and Francis and three grandchildren.