Eyes down

Some spoke in whispers, others said nothing, not daring to miss out on something which could change their lives.

The men and women, some with coloured pens, others with clipboards or lucky charms, werent taking an exam. They were sitting eyes down ready to play bingo.

The bingo hall, a converted cinema in Barkingside, is vast, with seating for 1,200. The 220 players there on the evening of my visit had room to spread themselves.

With a top prize of £100,000 on offer, players take the game seriously and prepare for it as if going into battle. Bingo is the second most popular leisure activity in the UK with three million regular players.

As I had never played bingo before I asked my friend Sylvia to come along to the club for moral support.

Gala club duty manager Diane Chaplin showed us to a table. Diane promised to be my bingo buddy and explain how everything worked.

As an absolute beginner I definitely needed help. There were so many different games such as the main programme, party extra, the ultimate, the link, and the big money national game. Each game had a set of different colour cards.

Diane explained: "If you buy all the cards, you can play all the numbers but if you just buy four for the national, you miss out, but you can buy six or go for the link."

Diane knew exactly what she meant, but to a bingo novice like me it was as clear as mud.

Sylvia and I met Emily and Sue, a mother and daughter team of regulars from Loughton, who agreed to take me under their bingo-ing wings.

The games began. I was disappointed: I had learned some bingo lingo, but there was no legs eleven 11, and two fat ladies 88. These have been replaced by the sing-song "two and eight, 28 of the caller, and now all numbers are generated by computers.

I sat opposite Emily who told me which game we were playing at any given time. The games were so fast, there was no way I could work out if I had won a line, two lines, or a full house.

Luckily Emily is an expert player and read my cards upside down as I frantically crossed the numbers off, making sure I didnt miss a thing. Emily has been a member of the Barkingside club since it opened in 1977.

I was getting bingo barmy when, suddenly, a distorted male voice announced over the Ethernet: "We are going li," the rest was lost in crackles. I thought he was desperately calling to Earth. The line crackled and pens moved at a cracking pace. I laughed at my silliness; this was not an astronaut in trouble, it was the national game.

According to the National Bingo Game Association (NBGA), at least 96 per cent of people play for the social side of the game, and 70 per cent are women.

For Pat Suett, from Barkingside, the club is somewhere to chat and meet friends.

"I have been coming here so long I feel like part of the furniture," said 63-year-old Pat, who visits the club at least three times a week.

She added: "I love it here, it's such a friendly place. Where else can a woman go on her own?" Of the 220 people in the hall, around two thirds were women, aged from their early 30s through to their 70s. A lot of women were on their own, but the game provides plenty of opportunities to make friends.

Pat and Eva Butler met at the club.

"We met here years ago and became good friends," said Eva.

Another regular, George Dickens, from Hainault, has been playing for about 20 years.

George said: "I love it here. Everyone knows me. As soon as I walk in people call out 'hello, George'. When the ladies see me they chat me up."

Widower George, 71, plays three days a week at the Fairlop Road club.

" I won £1,000 years ago. I haven't had a big win since but it doesn't matter, you win some, lose some," he said.

American Edwin Lowe patented the name Bingo in 1930. It was reputedly played by the Romans. It was recorded as a childrens game as lotto in 1778.

The national game, launched in 1986, is played every day except Christmas Day.