A COUPLE who ‘eloped’ to Gretna Green for their Golden wedding anniversary have celebrated their diamond occasion with Cardiff City Football Club hospitality.

Michael Nott, 82, and lifelong Bluebirds fan Glenys, 79, of The Pastures, Barry, marked the 60th anniversary of taking their vows at the match on Wednesday, October 2 – when Cardiff beat QPR 3:0.

The great-grandparents of 10, who have 10 grandchildren and five children, also received a signed card from the team in addition to a greeting card from the Queen.

The pair wed in the Cardiff Registry Office on October 3, 1959 and had their reception in the restaurant on the top of the Capitol cinema, nearby.

They met when both had to attend rehabilitation.

Mr Nott was invalided out of the Navy and Glenys, then 16, was recovering from TB.

Mrs Nott said staff had recognised he could be a suitable suitor.

She said: “They said, “He’s just your size, but I never took any notice. I could just see he signed the visitors book every day.”

Mr Nott asked her out on a date at the Park Hotel.

“I let myself down,” she said. “He asked if I wanted a drink.

“I said I’ll have the same as you.

“He said, “I’m having a pint”.”

Mrs Nott, unaccustomed to alcohol opted for a gin and orange.

But the date was a success and 50 years later the couple thought it would be a fun idea to run off to Gretna Green, in Scotland, to ‘elope’ – for their family and friends to discover on their return home.

Sixty years later the couple have revealed the secret for a long, happy, marriage.

“I know when to shut up,” Mr Nott said. “Never go to bed on an argument and we never have.”