Legs Eleven

I've always wanted to go to a real bingo game, and last Sunday, armed with a borrowed blobber, which I have been told is actually known as a dabber, I reckon it sounds better as a blobber, I went to Beacon Bingo in Northampton accompanied by a few of my work mates in the first of our Xmas nights out. As you can guess from the photos, we went in costumes - pirates. The experience was a lot different from the bingo games I used to play in my English classroom.  

Pirate Bingo, the start of Xmas work fun!

Blobber, check!

The atmosphere in the hall is really intense, it's almost like no one is breathing properly as the numbers start, as soon as a 'claim' is made the whole hall exhales. Phew! The numbers are called at quite a sharp pace so you have to concentrate to keep up with what's been called. The whole thing is computerised, the numbers are produced from a computer, each bingo sheet has a number reference associated with it, so that when a 'bingo' is called, a member of staff shouts this number and the computer can tell the officials if it's a valid bingo or not.

Twenty quid buys you six books to play over about ten games of bingo. The session starts at 19.30 and lasts from about two hours with a few breaks here and there. There is a mixture of games played nationally and within the Northampton bingo hall we were in. The prizes got progressively more lucrative as the evening went on, up to £1000 for a line.

Me and my bingo buddy.

No Bingo prizes for me this evening.

I didn't win anything, shame, I had already earmarked the money for a plane ticket somewhere. We did have one winner in our group, Sophie, she won twenty quid for getting a line. Probably not somewhere I'd go every week, but it was a different night out.

Rest of the 'motley crew'.