A KIDDERMINSTER couple who ran a restaurant together have the recipe for success as they have reached their diamond wedding.

“We are a great team,” said Allan Jinks of his wife Elizabeth, who worked front of house, while he was chef at the White Cat in Solihull between 1966 and 1982.

The couple, both 84, of Fairways Court, retired to Kidderminster in 1990. He was the former banqueting manager at the Grand Hotel in Birmingham and she had been a secretary for an insurance company. They married on May 31, 1952 at St Christopher’s Church in Moseley, Birmingham.

Mr Jinks, a member of St Mary’s masonic lodge in Kidderminster said: “We are just good pals, good friends, we have never had a cross word in all the time believe it or not. We have both got our own interests and we just get along.”

Mrs Jinks is a member of the Women’s Institute and enjoys keep fit. The couple have a son Russell and a daughter Bettina and two grandchildren Stephanie, 10 and Hugo, 8.

They started their celebrations with a two week cruise taking in Madeira the Canary Islands and Spain and will be surrounded by family at an anniversary lunch.