A retired detective inspector and his wife are celebrating 65 years of wedded bliss.

Ray and Phyllis Hagar, who met on the dodgems at a funfair in Oxpens Road, Oxford, when they were 17, spent the early years of their married life travelling around Oxfordshire for Mr Hagar's job.

They were both working for Morris Radiators in Woodstock Road, Oxford, but never met until Mrs Hagar spotted her future husband on the dodgems.

The couple, who live in The Spears, Yarnton, and have a daughter, two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, spent three years courting before being married at SS Mary and John Church in Cowley Road, Oxford.

As it was wartime, they were allowed to take only one day's holiday, their wedding day, before getting back to work.

Mr Hagar was well known in Oxfordshire as a police officer and footballer, playing for Oxford City and Thame United as well as the police force side.

Daughter Carol married a police officer, Bill Dover, a superintendent, before he retired.

Mr Hagar, who will be 85 next month, retired from the police force in 1977.

He said: "When I was a village policeman, we started Yarnton Youth Club and four or five of the lads from there joined the police force. They've retired now."

Mr Hagar said he and his wife, 85, tried to keep active in their retirement.

The secret of their successful marriage? He said: "I don't answer back. We have had a contented life and always kept active and done things together."

Most of the couple's family are in New Zealand, where one of their grandchildren works as a gynaecologist.