Our girl road tests a personal matchmaking service, with surprising results…

Posted on 13/01/10

Having been single for some time, well actually, quite some time, someone recommended I try out a rather different dating service called Just Courting. I declined the thoughtful offer immediately because I thought it wasn’t for me considering I’m one of those people who never goes on blind dates, would never sign up to an online dating site and whenever one of my friends has tried to set me up with someone who is perfect for me I end up leaving the date an hour after meeting and wondering if my friend actually knows me…

But after giving Just Courting some extra thought I warmed to their concept and thought, what the heck, I’d give it a go. The whole idea is that you meet up with a person from JC for a drink in a nice bar (Home House for me) where you have a relaxed chat about yourself, so the team can understand who you are and who you’re looking for. Then, after a few days I received an email, saying I had a date with Jonathan, who works in media, for the following Wednesday, including details of the venue.

I received a text from Jonathan earlier that day, in which he described himself  [apparently loads of piercings and a blue elephant tattoo on his neck. Humour. Tick.]. I arrived feeling perhaps a bit too relaxed considering I had no idea what to expect, but I quickly realised that here was a guy who would tick a lot of girls’ boxes: charming, good looking, witty, tall, funny, good dress sense, interesting… I even tried a few of my reaction tricks – I am one of those people who says a lot of crap when I get to know someone to see if this is someone I actually could click with. I know it’s a little strange, but trust me, it can be a lot of fun. Still great. Just two small problems: a five-year age gap, although I must say he was very mature for his age. The second thing was that I thought he might be a little too nice for me (why do I always go for the bad boys…?).

So we continued to a second bar… After another cocktail, my male Cinderella gave a  good reason to return home (work-related), so we walked up Regent Street together. We said goodbye, kissed on the cheeks and he said he would call me. Then, suddenly a passionate kiss on my mouth came from nowhere which freaked me out a little (far too soon in my opinion and so clichéd – we were on Oxford Circus after all) so I said, ‘Good luck’ (don’t ask me why) and ran off…

While researching the agency I noticed another journalist’s description of her date, which seemed all too familiar. I really got the feeling that ‘Jonathan’ had been on a few previous dates… Like me, the other journalist received a witty text before the date, was shown a picture of the guy’s nephew/niece in the middle of the date, had a great time, but she didn’t hear back from her date or receive any feedback from Just Courting…

Just Courting Ltd, 8 Hanover Street, W1; www.justcourting.com; 020 7290 2603