A couple of self-confessed geeks have developed a budding romance after hitting it off through a shared love of Lord of the Rings.
Andrew Bate, 41, and Natalie Hughes, 51, first met in January on a dating app designed to bring together like-minded people who enjoy everything from Dwarves to Darth Vader.
They first connected on January 4 through Geek Meet Club, a site dedicated to members who might want to share their ‘nerdy’ passions, from sci-fi to fantasy, or vampires and zombies.
Andrew, who says his favourite character in Lord of the Rings is Aragorn, and Natalie, who is a fan of Legolas, are now planning to meet for the first time in person at the end of March.
The pair, who video chat daily, are also big fans of Harry Potter. Their opening rendezvous will be at a train station, inspired by the wizards setting off to Hogwarts from platform 9 3/4.
The couple has yet to use the magic L-word, but Natalie says Andrew put a spell on her from the moment they met.
Natalie, a university worker from Birmingham, said Andrew had just joined when she messaged him a welcome to the group.
She said: “I’d been a member for quite a while and I logged on and Andrew put a message up saying something like, ‘hey, I’m new here’, and I said something like, ‘welcome to the group, it’s a fun place’.
“We got talking about Lord of the Rings, and the rest is history. We talked about the characterisation and how much we enjoyed the movies and how close they are to the books.”
Andrew, who works in forklift production in Kent, added that they both agreed the Hobbit was good, “but not as good as the first films”.
The couple’s biggest passion is J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic universe, and they both love Harry Potter, but Natalie revealed she is also a huge vampire fan.
“I am probably more into vampires than Andrew is, he hasn’t seen Vampire Diaries, but we’ll get there. We do both like Twilight, so we are planning to watch that together as well”, she said.
Andrew is a fan of Zombies, but Natalie admitted she is “terrified” of them.
Speaking about how they met on the site, Andrew, who has never married but has had long-term relationships, said: “With other websites, and to an even worse degree apps, I did find that there were so many bots and fake accounts.
“It was so difficult to find someone who was real and when you do, you have to hope you have interests in common. Geek Meet Club has no bots or fake accounts.”
Natalie agreed that she was a big fan of the site they met on, adding: “There’s no judgement, you can say, ‘I believe in fairies’ if you like, and people reply and say, ‘great, which type?’. It’s wonderful.
“For me other dating sites were full of intimate pictures that I would rather not see uninvited. The others were very surface level, two messages exchanged and then people would say, ‘let’s meet’.
Talking about what they like so far about their fellow geek, Andrew said it was remarkable how “in-sync” he and Natalie are.
He said: “We’ve said this to each other a few times, but we just find ourselves so in-sync with one another on so many subjects, views about things and likes and dislikes.”
Natalie said that she likes “everything” so far about Andrew, noting: “Honestly, he’s really kind and sweet and he’s got an amazing smile, and we just have so much in common.
“He has a great sense of humour and we have so many laughs together. Obviously, the physical side will happen eventually.”
Both Natalie and Andrew wanted to say a huge thank you to the founder of Geek Meet Club, and Chief Nerd, Dennie Smith.
Dennie said: “I couldn’t be more chuffed for Andrew and Natalie who met on our platform.
“Our goal has always been to create a space where like-minded geeks and nerds, can connect and form meaningful relationships or friendships.
“To see people come together, share their passions, and build something beautiful is exactly why we created this app. It’s not just about finding a match; it’s about finding someone who truly understands and shares your unique interests.”
