THREE Poole couples have waltzed their way through 60 years of marriage.

All Strictly fans, they are all also keen members of the Rose Club, which meets weekly at Hillbourne Community Centre, where 58 members aged from their 70s to 92 meet for sequence dancing.

With three couples celebrating their Diamond Weddings so close together, committee chairman Joyce Jones decided it was a good opportunity for a very special tea dance.

“Three Diamond Weddings in a week can’t be a thing that happens all the time,” she said.

Each twinkle-toed couple received their own cake, a toast and a special presentation from their friends in the club.

Jean and Ron Mitchell who live in Parkstone had a whirlwind romance and were wed after fourteen-and-a-half weeks. “We met at a dance and have been dancing ever since,” said Jean, 82, a former nursery nurse and hospital play leader.

“She’s a very good dancer,” said Ron, 85, who used to work in a shipyard. “Better than me.” Formerly they were exponents of six different kinds of dancing. “Now we do sequence so we can keep dancing,” said Jean.

Jim and Pearl Hooper from Hamworthy met when Pearl was 14 and they went with their parents on coach trips. Jim, 81, served in the army and went to Hong Kong and they got together again when he returned.

“I used to go to line dancing quite a lot,” said Pearl, 78. He didn’t really start dancing until he was in his 40s. It was when they took daughter Tracy, then 10, to ballroom dancing that they got interested and had lessons.

They had a break then started again when Jim retired from his job as an engineer. “We want to keep dancing as long as we can. Otherwise we just vegetate,” said Pearl. They celebrated their 60-years on March 26, as did the third couple.

Jack and Shirley Kendall met at an RAF camp at Sutton-on-Hull when Shirley was 15. “I requested him to do a waltz,” said Shirley, now 82. “It was a ‘ladies desire’ and I went up and desired him.”

And they have been dancing ever since. They moved to Poole 59 years-ago and also used to do ballroom dancing, said Jack, 85. They put their long marriage down to, “love, sharing and bickering,” said Shirley. “We love dancing and we’ll continue as long as we can.”