A DIAMOND couple who met on the coach to see their town football team play a cup final at Wembley Stadium are celebrating 60 years of marriage.

Peter and Yvonne Charles-Betts of Errington Road, Colchester, joined the 100,000 fans that turned out to watch Harwich and Parkeston FC play in their first Amateur Cup final in 1953.

Although their team lost 6-0 to Pegasus AFC, the seeds were sown for a relationship that would last for more than half a century.

Peter, 85, and Yvonne, 79, were born and raised in Harwich, but moved to Colchester due to Peter’s career as a brave firefighter.

“The fire service was a wonderful career, I don’t regret a thing,” said Peter “I dealt with numerous accidents and fires, you name it I did it.

“It was just a very worthwhile job.

“To enjoy a career where you help people is beyond any monetary worth, I was hooked completely after a couple of weeks.

“You have to be a certain type of person to take it on, you see all aspects of life - the good and the bad.

“Yvonne worked at the Bernard’s Uniforms factory before we moved to Colchester, where she worked as a financial secretary in the NHS.”

The loving couple met in 1953, a moment Peter recalls fondly.

“We met in the famous year of the floods,” he said.

“Harwich and Parkeston FC had managed to achieve an amateur cup final at Wembley, and it broke a record for the highest-scoring amateur cup final.

“Harwich lost 6-0, but it was a fantastic day.

“Essentially the whole of Harwich were on the coaches to the match - it was unbelievable.

“The town was deserted.

“I sat behind Yvonne on the coach and we got speaking.

“My parents knew her parents, everyone knew one another in Harwich.

“Her mother was instrumental in us getting together - our parents used to go out on Saturday afternoon and I called in to buy a round of drinks.

“She said ‘you should be taking my daughter out instead’.”

He added: “We married when I was 25 and she was 18 at St Nicholas Church, Harwich, on March 23, 1957. It was a wonderful day, we had the fire brigade form a guard of honour.

“The reception was held in The Anchor Hotel, which is no longer there - it was a beautiful place.

“60 years on, I have no secret to a long and happy relationship except give and take.”

Peter and Yvonne’s big day was a celebration tinged with a heavy sadness.

Their daughter Jacqueline, 56, suddenly died when she suffered an aneurysm the day after her parents’ anniversary two years ago.

“It was horrible, unexpected and it knocked us for six,” said Peter.

“The day has had extra emotion since then.

“We cope with the strength of friends and family.”

Peter and Yvonne have a son, Martin, two granddaughters aged 25 and 26, and a grandson, 21.

The couple celebrated the landmark anniversary surrounded by around 90 friends and family, at the Greyfriars, in Colchester, on March 23.