Meet mystery man Maff from Kettering and why he said 'find me' to Ashley from Market Harborough

Last Saturday night Maff Sharman, the Maff from Kettering in question, had been out with a group of friends to a gig in Market Harborough, a regular treat for the music fan.

Ready for a dance, he asked a fellow gig-goer to join him – that someone was Ashley.

He said: “I went with some friends to Market Harborough for a few hours but we had to get the last train home. Before we did, we listened to a band and I ended up singing and dancing.

“We had a few drinks, enjoying the band. I was twirling and dancing, I said to her ‘do you want to dance’ – and we did.”

The group had to catch the 10.22pm train back the Kettering to continue their night out.

He said: “We had to get the train and ‘I said I’m Maff, I’m from Kettering, find me’.

“I did not expect her to find me. I did not expect anything.”

His dance partner Ashley had taken to X and tweeted out: “Was dancing with a lad last night, and his mates dragged him away for the last train home...he said ‘my name’s Maff from Kettering, find me’...imagine if life were that easy.”

Lucky for @ashleyrich, romantically-minded X users were up for the challenge to track down Maff – it went viral thanks to more than 5,300 retweets and 13.3million views.

The first an oblivious Maff knew, back in Kettering, was in the morning. The 41-year-old doesn’t ‘do’ social media but his friends recognised the description and contacted him.

He said: “When I got up on Sunday, my phone was blowing up, friends were like ‘check this out’.

“I said, ‘this can’t be real’. I had some random messenger message from some girl and didn’t think anything of it but more towards the evening a few more tweets and and a few more messages.”

On Monday morning, systems development manager Maff went into work in Emplas Windows in Wellingborough and realised he was the centre of a viral man hunt.

He said: “One of my contract managers said ‘are you this Maff that’s been spoken about on Radio 1?’ I said ‘yeah, I think I might be’.”

Through friends, Maff was contacted by Matt Edmondson, co-host of the BBC Radio 1 afternoon show that he presents with Mollie King.

They played Ashley the song guitar player Maff had uploaded to You Tube in her honour.

Speaking to Mollie and Matt, web developer Ashley said: “Maff’s definitely a very good-looking man.”

The pair were finally hooked up live on the air with a virtual dinner ‘date’ and afterwards chatted on the phone – away from the microphones.

Maff says they talked for about three hours about ‘everything and anything’.

He said: “We got on great. We had lots in common. We chatted away. I’d like to meet and see how it goes.”

Despite being the centre of a romantic viral search, Maff is not sure his 15-year-old son Jack knows his dad is the centre of attention.

Maff said: “It’s not the sort of thing you expect to happen after a Saturday night out. I’ve no idea why I said ‘find me’. I think I had a whisky sour so maybe that’s what it was.”

The couple will meet soon for a date, probably back in The Freemasons Arms where they first met.

And Maff added: “I’m an old romantic at heart. You never know, even if there’s just friends out of it. Who knows?”