Bingo Lingo

It’s a common misconception that Heinz have 57 different products. They in fact have many more. 57 was choosen due to the fact the numbers 5 and 7 have special meaning to the Heinz family. The number 5 was John Heinz’s lucky number, while 7 was his wife’s.

In total, Heinz is thought to have almost 6,000 products worldwide. But that hasn’t stopped the famous Heinz 57 Varieties becoming popular at bingo halls throughout the UK.

And as if that wasn’t enough facts for you… did you know that baked beans were far from being the first Heinz product. That particular honour goes to prepared horseradish!

You need to be familiar with either the book or film to know this one! The Thirty-Nine Steps was originally a novel by John Buchan, but became famous thanks to the 1935 film by Sir Alfred Hitchcock.

This lingo is taken from the famous ABBA song, Dancing Queen. To save you from digging our your old records, the lyric goes: “You are the Dancing Queen, young and sweet, only seventeen…”

Traditionally, the UK pension age was 65 – although it was lower for women until recently. Indeed, 65 will no longer be the age at all before long – who knows whether this one will get updated in bingo halls as well.

This one dates back quite some years. Traditionally bed and breakfast establishments in the UK charged 2 shillings and 6 pence to customers wishing to use their facilities. This was always shortened as “2 and 6″ – and so the bingo call was born.

Danny La Rue was a famous entertainer, best known for his drag act. We was also a regular performer in the traditional Christmas pantomime season, and made a guest appearance on a Mr. Bean episode. We are pretty sure the 52 is simply because it rhymes… though we’d gladly be proven wrong if anyone can shed any further light.

Par for the course, number 72, finds its roots in the game of Golf. Traditionally, a golf course has a “par” of 72; par being the number of shots it should take to complete the course.

Nowadays many golf courses have a par which differ from this 72, but bingo continues to maintain the link the traditional 72.

For those of you who enjoy the game of darts, this one needs no explaining. But those less familiar with the numbered circular board found in many a pub… the bulls eye is the centre of the board and is worth 50 points if hit by the thrower.

This bingo call is from the old days in the Army. There used to be a pill, known as Number 9, which would be given out by Army doctors to soldiers. It was a laxative!

This bingo lingo is very dependent upon who is currently occupying 10 Downing Street. It is often referred to simply as Number 10, hence the obvious association. The current Prime Minister is David Cameron – David’s Den. Previous incarnations included Tony’s Den and John’s Den.