The best man who married the bride!

GOLDEN Wedding couple Roger and Anne Shadbolt can look back on a marriage the start of which could have been taken from the pages of a romantic novel.
For Roger, who  was due to be best man at his best friend’s wedding, ended up marrying the bride – Anne!
There was a seven-year courtship in between, but that was mainly because merchant seaman Roger was sailing the seven seas.
“There was no way I was marrying a sailor” joked Anne.
The couple, of The Limes, Booth’s Hill Close, Lymm, celebrated 50 years of marriage with a party for 80 family, friends and neighbours where Roger told the story of their meeting.
It would never have happened if Anne had not left her home in Yorkshire to work at the Continental Telephone Exchange in London – a job which required her to handle ‘phone calls in French and English.
A work colleague introduced her to a youth group where she met Roger and his friend.
In the fullness of time, the friend and Anne became engaged and Roger was asked to be best man.
It was only months before the wedding, with most of the arrangements made, that the couple mutually agreed they were not meant for each other and called the whole thing off.
Over the next seven years a close friendship between Roger and Anne developed into a courtship – despite the fact he was travelling the world in the Merchant Navy. He believes he visited more than 100 countries.
But all voyages led back to Britain and Anne, so 50 years ago they married, moving back to Yorkshire where they started their family, which now consists of a son and daughter and four grandchildren.
Roger and Anne have now lived in Lymm for six years and take an active role in the local community. They are members of Lymm Methodist Church, in Eagle Brow, where Roger is a local preacher and Anne is a member of the church magazine editorial team as well as the Open the Book group which provides bible studies at local schools.
They are both members of Warrington U3A and take a keen interest in local music through the Friends of Walton Hall and WACIDOM, the Warrington Competition for Young Musicians while Anne is also a member of Lymm Jubilee WI.