LOVESTRUCK teenager, Beryl Hall, was bowled over when she spotted future husband, Brian, playing in a holiday cricket match near Kidderminster.

It might have been love at first sight for the 14-year-old but it was 10 years before they married, on February 19, 1955.

On Saturday, they are going back to St Peter's Church in Arley, where the wedding took place, for a golden wedding blessing from a minister friend.

"I used to go on holiday from West Bromwich to Arley, where Brian was born in the Harbour Inn," said Beryl, now 73. "I first saw him playing cricket with some other children. They asked me to play and we were friends from that moment on."

Brian joined the Coldstream Guards for three years and spent time in Cyprus and Egypt before he asked Beryl to be his girlfriend.

They spent the first five years of married life in a wooden bungalow behind the Harbour Inn before moving to their present home in Chester Road South, Kidderminster.

Brian, now 72, spent his working life as a carpenter and Beryl brought up three children, Marian, Julie and Robert, as well as being a children's superintendent at Kidderminster Girls High School.

She sings in the choir at Trinity Methodist Church in Kidderminster and is in the town's horticultural society.

"Keeping busy is important for a marriage," she said. "Having a sense of humour and being able to share also helps."

After the blessing, they will be taking their children and five grandchildren back to where it all started - for a meal at the Harbour Inn.