TWENTY three years is a very long engagement by anyone’s standards.

So Julie Saunders, from Corfe Mullen, can be forgiven for thinking fiancee Roy Leake was joking when he finally set a wedding date earlier this year.

The long-term lovebirds, who first met playing badminton nearly 34 years ago and are now keen bowls players, will tie the knot at Graceland Wedding Chapel, in Las Vegas, next month.

Retired Roy, 65, said: “I have to be sure. I didn’t want to rush into things.

“It’s not quite the usual Las Vegas shot gun wedding – she couldn’t believe after all these years that I actually wanted to marry her.”

He wanted to keep the whole thing a secret for Julie’s 50th birthday, but needed to tell her the secret for the marriage paperwork and so ended up going down on one knee at a restaurant.

Julie, a sports coach at Bryanston School, near Blandford, said: “I said ‘Yeah, right’ when he asked me – it’s not April Fools Day is it?

“Everyone’s said about time! They’re all delighted though because we’ve been together so long and didn’t think Roy would ever get round to it.

“I guess it’s good to get to know each other beforehand. We’ve had a good trial run.”

After losing touch when Julie went to work abroad, they started going out when Roy happened to walk into the shop Julie worked at in Parkstone. Four months later, when Julie was 27, they were engaged.

Roy, a former commercial vehicle salesman, said: “We got engaged because we loved each other. I didn’t plan on getting married.

“That’s just suddenly changed after 23 years of happy engagement.”

WORLD CHAMPION IN 2006

JULIE was Bowls world champion 2006 and singles England champion 2005.

She plays for England indoors and outdoors, and has just helped England retain the British Isles title.

Roy, who plays for Knyveton Gardens Bowling Club, is a national finalist outdoors, from 2005.

They are both members of Bournemouth Indoor Bowls Club, and Julie plays for Poole Park.

At the end of 2011, she won two Gold medals and a Silver medal in the Atlantic Rim Games in Cyprus, and has been selected for the England squad for November’s World Championships in Australia.

It all started in 1995 when they were playing tennis at Ringwood and hit a ball on to the next door bowling green.