CUPID'S arrow struck and stayed firm when Patricia and Gordon Pithouse met at a darts match in Devizes more than 60 years ago.

The couple are now preparing to celebrate their diamond wedding anniversary on Saturday with a party for around 100 people at The Cavalier Pub.

It will be the first time that they will have met some of the newest additions to their family which includes four children, six grandchildren, two step grandchildren, six great grandchildren and three step grandchildren.

Mrs Pithouse, 81, and her husband, 87, first met at The Queens Head pub in Dunkirk Hill when Mr Pithouse was competing but they did not start dating for a couple of years.

She said: "We lived in Rowde and Gordon was from Devizes. He knew a couple of my brothers but I didn't know him. He actually bumped into one of my brothers when he was out in the Middle East after they were both called up into the army after the war."

The couple married at Devizes Register Office on March 25, 1957 and moved in with her parents before getting their own home at Rotherstone, Devizes.

Mr Pithouse was a self-employed jobbing builder but did nearly all of his work for Wadworth Brewery. After his official retirement he went back to work for Wadworth doing maintenance and remained employed until he was 77.

Mrs Pithouse worked for Avon Rubber in Melksham and later in the physiotherapy department of Devizes Hospital as an orderly and doing reception work.

The couple now live at Northgate Gardens, Devizes and are looking forward to seeing old friends and family on Saturday. Mrs Pithouse said: "It will be a wonderful chance for us to see some of our great grandchildren that we are yet to meet."

She said that they had witnessed many changes to Devizes over the years and remembered when Devizes Market include many live animals for sale.

She said: "There would be chickens and allsorts in cages. You could buy absolutely everything there."