Those with years of experience playing bingo down at their local hall will already be familiar with the multitude of unusual rhymes and descriptions assigned to the numbers featured in the game. For everybody else, the bingo lexicon can be nothing short of bewildering! Whenever I’m interrupted during a round of online bingo by a friend calling at the door, they are sure to ask about the quirky rhymes and random numbers as they continuously stream from the speakers of my computer.
In this article, we’ll not only list the most modern and funny calls assigned to all 90 of the numbers used in UK-style bingo, but we’ll also dig into the reasons and history behind them as well: In short, this is everything you ever wanted to know about British bingo calls.
Many of the calls used in bingo halls and online bingo sites today date back centuries, making it a little tricky to determine the origins of some of the more obscure references. One popular theory amongst bingo players is that the game was first played by soldiers and seamen during their downtime, which would explain the large number of military references included in the list of the most popular calls. This view is further supported by the fact that we know with certainty that, by the turn of the 20th century, bingo was a common pastime among members of all wings of the British armed forces.
That being said, many of the best-known military calls have since been replaced with more modern equivalents by many bingo halls and websites. For example, unless you’re playing bingo at your local Foreign Legion, you’ll probably not hear ‘Lowland Division… Number 52!” nowadays! Instead, the number has been re-assigned to the popular entertainer Danny La Rue. So the game's origins may lie with the armed forces, but we’ll have to dig a little deeper to discover more about the origins of today’s most popular bingo calls!
Here's a small selection of the most well-known military bingo calls
Bingo is a mature pastime created for us older folk, so there’s no reason we can’t have a few funny, naughty, or raunchy calls in amongst the selection, is there? In fact, if the official caller opts for a different type of call – perhaps a traditional or military-based one – don’t be surprised to find other players at your table repeating the slightly more… salacious alternatives!
With a game as old as bingo, it’s not surprising that we have a few extremely old and religiously inspired calls amongst the bunch. Here are a few of the best that we were able to compile from a multitude of sources:
Most of us have little experience with military life, so it’s not surprising that some of the more obscure military-based calls have since been replaced with alternatives that can be more easily understood by your average man (or woman!) in the street. A few examples include 53 – commonly referred to as “Here comes Herbie!”, a famous from a Walt Disney movie that always had the number 53 painted on its bonnet. The number 49 is typically referred to as “PC49”, a wartime radio show that followed the work of Police Constable Archie Berkely-Willoughby between 1946 and 1953.
There are some contemporary examples of this, too – the aforementioned Danny La Rue (number 52) was an Irish singer and entertainer best known for his on-stage drag persona, and he only passed away as recently as 2009. The number 39 is most often assigned to Jack Benny, an American entertainer who progressed from playing the violin to being one of the leading 20th-century entertainers in radio, television, and film.
What’s humour without some dirty and rude bingo calls? Adults sure enjoy a naughty and kinky sense of humour, so don’t be surprised if your fellow bingo players make offensive bingo calls! Note that there’s a little bit of cross-over here with the funny.
During the later years of the 20th century, it was common for many bingo halls – particularly those located in the South of England – to use Cockney rhyming slang to refer to many of the numbers used in the game. Examples of this phenomenon include ‘young and keen’ – rhymes with fifteen – ‘duck and dive’ – for twenty-five – and ‘buckle my shoe’ (32). A large number of these calls have since spread to other parts of the country and are now frequently used at bingo halls throughout the UK.
These calls need little explanation – each one rhymes with the corresponding number. Not all of them are ‘Cockney’ slang, but it’s always nice when a bingo call rhymes!
All of this isn’t to say that bingo and its calls are stuck in the past – indeed, many bingo callers will frequently improvise new calls from day to day, mixing them in with the more traditional and well-known references to make the game a little more entertaining. For example, Mecca Bingo – one of the largest operators of bingo halls and online bingo in the United Kingdom – decided to update many of the bingo calls used by their properties just a couple of years ago. Visit one of their locations today, and you’re much more likely to hear the number 8 referred to as ‘Tinder date’ rather than a ‘garden gate’, whilst 17 could now be a ‘selfie queen’ rather than a ‘dancing queen’! Is this blasphemy? I’ll leave it up to you to decide!
Ball Number
Name
1
Kelly's Eye
2
One Little Duck
3
Cup of Tea
4
Knock at the Door
5
Man Alive
6
Tom Mix
7
Lucky Seven
8
Garden Gate
9
Doctor's Orders
10
Downing Street
11
Legs Eleven
12
One Dozen
13
Unlucky for Some
14
Valentines Day
15
Young and Keen
16
Sweet 16
17
Dancing Queen
18
Coming of Age
19
Goodbye Teens
20
One Score
21
Key of the Door
22
Two Little Ducks
23
Thee and Me
24
Two Dozen
25
Duck and Dive
26
Pick and Mix
27
Gateway to Heaven
28
In a State
29
Rise and Shine
30
Dirty Gertie
31
Get up and Run
32
Buckle my Shoe
33
Dirty Knees
34
Ask for More
35
Jump and Jive
36
Three Dozen
37
More than Eleven
38
Christmas Cake
39
39 Steps
40
Life Begins
41
Time for Fun
42
Winnie the Pooh
43
Down on your Knees
44
Droopy Drawers
45
Halfway There
46
Up to Tricks
47
Four and Seven
48
Four Dozen
49
PC
50
Half a Century
51
Tweak of Thumb
52
Danny La Rue
53
Stuck in a Tree
54
Clean the Floor
55
Snakes Alive
56
Was she Worth it?
57
Heinz Varieties
58
Make Them Wait
59
Brighton Line
60
Five Dozen
61
Baker's Bun
62
Turn on the Screw
63
Tickle Me
64
Red Raw
65
Old Age Pension
66
Clickety Click
67
Stairway to Heaven
68
Saving Grace
69
Either Way Up
70
Three Score and Ten
71
Bang on the Drum
72
Six Dozen
73
Queen Bee
74
Candy Store
75
Strive and Strive
76
Trombones
77
Sunset Strip
78
Heavens Gate
79
One more Time
80
Eight and Blank
81
Stop and Run
82
Straight on Through
83
Time for Tea
84
Seven Dozen
85
Staying Alive
86
Between the Sticks
87
Torquay in Devon
88
Two Fat Ladies
89
Nearly There
90
Top of the Shop
Let's face it, bingo is a great game, but without the wordplay that's involved with the numbers, it would undoubtedly be less entertaining. Luckily, the terminology involved is always going to change with the current times and trends, so why you will always have your firm favourites if you are an older player, there will always be more modern references making their way into bingo vocabulary if you are a younger player of the much-loved game.
Article by Chris Howlett
Chris has over 11 years of experience playing and writing about bingo and online slots.