Shropshire Star

Bingo keeps isolated Telford neighbours entertained during coronavirus lockdown - in pictures

Bingo halls may have closed their doors but residents in a Telford street hosted a whole new version of the classic game to keep themselves entertained throughout the coronavirus lockdown.

Published
Craig Slow with his wife Kerry and their children William, seven, and Charlie, four

Gym owner Craig Slow became a part-time bingo caller for his isolating neighbours in Broomhurst Way, Muxton, who sat on their driveways to take part in the game at a safe distance from each other.

The 39-year-old had posted bingo cards through the letterboxes of homes on his street, along with an invitation to join in the fun on Sunday afternoon.

Craig, who runs Fit4 the Future in Newport, said: "My inspiration came from our experience of bongo bingo and a game via Facebook messenger during the first week of lockdown organised by our friend Ellie Harte.

"We posted a little note and bingo cards through about 14 doors, any drive we can see from ours.

"The road name is Broomhurst Way so we called it Broomhurst Bingo.

"I have a portable speaker I use for work, so we used that, and I called out the numbers over a microphone.

"I used a bingo number generator app on my phone, and we played songs loosely relating to the numbers.

"Number two was little boy blue, so we played a Blue song, number 14 was Valentine's Day so we used Love Is All Around, for 69 we had Summer of '69. It went on like that."

Craig said about 30 residents joined in, including his wife Kerry, 37, who works as a year six teacher at Wrockwardine Wood Church of England Junior School, and sons Charlie, four, and William, seven.

Their neighbours have since left gifts of wine and Easter eggs on their doorstep to show their thanks.

Craig, who has lived on the street with his family for more than three years, said it had helped to raise people's spirits and gave everyone the chance to get to know their neighbours better.

Nice

"People don't usually have time to do something like this as a lot of us are rushing about with our own lives," he said.

"It's nice for people to come together when it's like this to put some smiles on people's faces.

"We've lived here three and a bit years and it's the first time we've spoken to some of the neighbours.

"Now we know people's names and it was good to see everyone enjoying themselves.

"We had a bit of a chat afterwards and a few people had some drinks.

"It keeps me a bit occupied too as my gym had to shut down because of the lockdown a couple of weeks ago."

And the fun is poised to continue as residents in the street have made plans for further activities.

Craig added: "People seem interested in doing something like this again.

"We've talked about doing a quiz or some kind of game show like Play Your Cards Right."

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