Southern men quids in at Middlemarch

Depending on your gender, the oversupply of women at the Middlemarch Easter singles dance on Saturday night was either a bane or a blessing.

The women had a good time despite a shortage of partners, while the men were quids in.

"There were women to spare," local Jason Tisdall, 30, enthused yesterday. "If you missed out last night it was your own fault."

The town opened its A&P Show dance to singles two years ago to try to marry off its single blokes and 400 people attended. Saturday night's dance attracted more than 600, including 200 who had travelled by train north from Dunedin.

Estimates of the gender imbalance varied from four women to every man to two to one.

Mr Tisdall was not complaining. He hit it off with a young woman from Dunback, northwest of Palmerston, and said he hoped to see her again. "It was a great night - apart from the fact there was no one at my house to skite to in the morning."

He was not the only Middlemarch man to find romance, dance organiser Kate Wilson said. She said one local man was seen "leaving hand in hand" with a woman, and another caught the train back to Dunedin early yesterday morning to pursue a Tauranga nurse.

Agricultural contractor Craig Robinson and his bride, Lisa Tielkes, led the first dance. They met at the 2001 dance and married in Middlemarch on Good Friday.

- NZPA