Jack Jones celebrates his 103rd birthday

Dates with much younger "girlfriends" and weekly outings to the pub with the "lads" are helping to keep Jack Jones young at heart - at the age of 103.

The Stourbridge centenarian has three regular dates but says the top of his list and his "sweetheart" is 59-year-old Adele Cleeton, of Kingswinford, who takes him out to the theatre and restaurants and visits him at least once a week.

He met Adele about eight years ago when she was visiting her parents, who used to live near Jack.

"She's my sweetheart and very special to me — it's a bit too late for me to propose but I would if I was a few years younger," he said.

"We're going to see Joseph at the Grand Theatre in Wolverhampton soon.

Adele said: "Jack is the nicest young man that I know and we have a lovely, platonic relationship."

Jack, who lives off Enville Street, Stourbridge, also goes on outings with a 36-year-old from Brierley Hill, who recently took him to the cinema in Merry Hill, and a 72-year-old from Hagley, who visits him twice a week and takes him on drives.

"The young friends I've got give me an incentive to keep going," he said. Jack popped into his favourite pub — The Greyhound in Norton Road — for his weekly free pint of ale on Wednesday, along with his "chauffeur", 90-year-old Harold Haywood, and "young" friend Howard Cartwright, aged 85.

Staff and customers at The Greyhound put out banners and a cake to mark his latest milestone — his 103rd birthday — which he reached on Saturday.

The pub awarded him a free pint of bitter once a week for life two years ago — and the West Bromwich Albion fan still claims it every Wednesday.

Jack and Harold, of Farmcroft Road, Wollescote, Stourbridge, worked together as long distance lorry drivers for 46 years, first at Taylor Law in Stourbridge and later at the Bluebird toffee factory in Hunnington, near Halesowen.

Jack was born in Enville, near Stourbridge, and later moved with his family to Churchill and then Hackman's Gate, both near Hagley.

When he was 17 and had passed his driving test he says he "sprouted" his wings and travelled all over the country working.

He did not stop driving until he was aged 96.

He and his wife, Winn, wed in 1939 and had been married almost 50 years when she died.