Two fat ladies? A guide to UK Bingo calls

Bingo is on the up and up.  Both land-based and online bingo are hugely popular across Britain, with all sorts of people playing and thousands of pounds being won every week.  The stakes have gone up recently, with National Prizes meaning a few lucky players have gone home with a million pounds from their bingo night out!

Bingo has a long tradition in the UK, with nicknames or rhyming calls for all the numbers, from 1 to 90, which date back to the 1950s.

Here is the lowdown on bingo calls to help you decipher the jargon.

Some calls are very famous like Legs Eleven and Clickety Click: 66, while others refer to the way the numbers look: Two little ducks: 22 or Two fat ladies: 88.

There are the rhyming pairs:  Pick and Mix â€" 26, Man Alive â€" 5, Made in Heaven - 67

And the significant age numbers:  Dancing Queen â€" 17, Key to the Door â€" 21

The unimaginative:  Four and Seven â€" 47

The mathematical: Six dozen â€" 72

From the sublime: One more time - 79  

To the ridiculous: Dirty Gertie - 30

And the simply inexplicable:  More than Eleven â€" 37, Was she worth it â€" 56 (apparently the cost of a wedding licence in the old days).

In recent years, some attempts have been made to modernize the bingo calls, for example J-Lo’s bum: 71 was tried, but didn’t stick.

So get down to you local bingo hall or log in to your favourite site, get a card and listen out for those calls.  Good luck!