A cycling couple from Orpington is celebrating a golden anniversary this week after pedalling through 60 years of marriage.

Ron and Betty Robbins, 85 and 83, of Marsden Way in Orpington, are celebrating the six-decade milestone on Thursday August 28.

The pair first met at a Christ cycle club dance in Streatham back in 1951 and since then have gone on to share a lifetime of the sport.

Mr Robbins said: ““I walked her from the cycle club up to Loughborough Junction and she went off home. From that moment I knew she was the one.”

“I sent her a card for her birthday which was on New Year’s Eve. When she got the card she didn’t remember who I was, she had to ask one of her mates until she remembered.

“We did meet again and three weeks later I asked her to marry me.”

The couple married on August 28, 1954, and continued to cycle together for many years.

Mr Robbins was a member of the Kentish Wheelers, with whom he scooped three national championships in a time trial event.

Sadly his riding days were cut short after he fell five stories from a department store and broke his back, but since then he and his wife and passed on their two-wheeled stories to their three children.

News Shopper:

Daughter Trudy Robbins, 51, told the News Shopper: “I swear the time it took them to cycle to Brighton has got shorter and shorter over the years they've told me the story.

“Now they say they did it faster than I can in the car!”

The family is set to celebrate the anniversary with a barbecue on Saturday.