A CHANCE meeting over a game of Aunt Sally led to romance for Dave and Eve Edwards.

Today, 50 years on, they are celebrating their golden wedding anniversary.

The couple, of Sycamore Road, Launton, near Bicester, lived in Florence Park, Oxford, until 2001, before moving to be closer to their daughter.

Mrs Edwards, 69, said they got together in the late 1950s.

She said: “We met through the local Aunt Sally – they were playing a match in Oxford. Two or three friends heard a game was on and wanted three friends to make up a group.

“We met there and it really went from there.”

The couple used to hang around with a group of friends while they courted, and Mr Edwards, now 73, even proposed on a night out with the gang.

They married at the Register Office, in New Road, Oxford.

Avid Oxford United fan, Mr Edwards, who grew up in Botley, did National Service with Royal Army Ordnance Corps in the mid-1950s and was based in Belgium.

After leaving the Army, he worked for British Motor Corporation at the Cowley car plant, and later as a carpenter at the Warneford Hospital, Headington.

Mrs Edwards, who came from Horspath, worked for the BMC’s Nuffield Exports division and later for Oxfordshire County Council’s social services department, looking after disabled and elderly people.

Her hobbies include gardening and local history.

The couple have two children, daughter Jackie Robson, and son Gary who moved to New Zealand, and two grandchildren, Chloe and Sam.

Mr and Mrs Edwards enjoy travelling, among the highlights being a trip to New Zealand to visit their son and his family, who moved there about four years ago.

The couple marked their milestone anniversary with a recent cruise in the Mediterranean.

Asked what was the secret of a long and happy marriage, Mrs Edwards said: “A lot of give and take. You have to share and care a little bit and be honest with each other.”