A NEW Road cricket legend is celebrating the finest half century of his life.

Martin Horton, the popular and talented opening batsman and off-spinner for Worcestershire County Cricket Club, celebrated 50 years of marriage at the weekend.

Mr Horton, a cornerstone of the side which brought the county championship to New Road for the first time in 1964, grew up just around the corner from his future wife Margaret in the Arboretum area of the city.

Mrs Horton, aged 69, said she remembers him from her childhood.

"We had a dressmaker living next door to us and Martin used to come and pick up packages for his mother," she said.

"I remember him but he doesn't remember me."

She was 16 when they went on their real first date to the theatre, and it clearly knocked them for six as three years later, on September 17, 1956, they walked down the aisle of their local church, St Mary's, Sansome Walk.

By then Mr Horton was already a local sporting hero. In 1952 he had made his debut for Worcestershire and also played for England twice in 1959.

He scored more than 20,000 runs for the county and took more than 800 wickets.

It would have been more but his sporting career was interrupted by two years national service with the RAF. And a broken knee cap at the age of 32 marked the end of Mr Horton's career, although he did not leave the world of cricket.

He took a job as the national director of cricket coaching in New Zealand and his wife and the couple's daughter Shelley went with him.

They stayed for 17 years before returning to the Faithful City in 1984. Now the 72-year-old lives in the Northwick area.

The couple agreed that give and take was the secret of a long innings in married life.

"We think the same, we both know what is important," added Mr Horton.

To mark the milestone they are going on holiday to Bulgaria with their daughter and son-in-law. When they return they are having a party for friends and family.