A couple of months ago, I was asked to help out at an outdoor charity event in Surrey, South England. It was a marathon 24 hour bingo event that was taking place outdoors or in a giant marquee, depending on the weather. It was for a cancer-related charity and as I was a chum of one of the organisers, and an ex-Bingo Caller, I was asked to do calling of the numbers for an hour.

I have to say that I’d never before done calling at an outside event, and I was a little concerned that there might be many reasons for the event not to be a success. Would it rain? Would the PA (Public Address) system be up to the job? Would there be enough administrative support? How would we get power to the field where it was being held? Was there adequate parking nearby?

I needn’t have worried. It was very well organised and everything went smoothly. I recall that the main reason to be joyful was that the weather was great- sunny, but not baking hot. The PA was well up to job and everyone was in a party mood! My session was 3pm-4pm, but in fact I did another hour as the Caller after me had been delayed by traffic on the M25!  I must admit it was initially quite strange standing on a number of bales of hay reading out the Bingo numbers into a microphone, and to hear my voice booming out across the lovely Surrey countryside!

What I found very heart-warming was that a number of winners immediately donated their winnings to the charity, and as there were 24 prizes of between 20 and 100 pounds each, that was very generous of those people! Thanks to them!

There was only two incidents during my sessions that are worthy of special mention. One was that the cows in the nearby shed starting lowing very loudly during one session, and threatened to drown out my calling even with the PA on full power! I was told was that it was because they needed milking, but the farmer was at this event, and wanted to finish his Bingo session first! Reasonable I think? The other was that, to the vast amusement of the crowd and the Bingo players, a Canada Goose gave its luck to me while a gaggle of them flow over the field. That required me getting a handkerchief from a helper, and wiping my bald pate that had been liberally splattered with the warm mess. Yuk! For the rest of my session I made the players laugh by ducking for cover every time anything vaguely bird-like came across the sky!

Later that week, I met one of the other Callers who did one of the early morning sessions (2am!!). He said that surprisingly, there were still a lot of people playing at that time and because it was a warm night, only a few woollies/blankets were required. He also said that because they had a beer/wine tent that didn’t close, there were always refreshments on hand. We later found out that we should have got permission for it to be licensed- so if you’re a member of the County Council or Constabulary, I can only apologise on the organisers’ behalf and say that next time we’ll make sure we dot that i and cross that!