A night out at Bingo Wings!

So, if you’ve not heard of Bingo Wings yet you must have been living under a rock in another part of the country because Bingo Wings is fast becoming Bristol’s most talked about event! I have to admit I’m slightly late to the party on this one, because it was a mere two weeks ago when I attended my first one at Noche Negra (the biggest one to date in fact) but this is fast becoming one of the top things to do in Bristol.

Anyway, what is Bingo Wings?! I’m glad you asked and if you’re still reading my ramblings then you certainly deserve to know! Bingo Wings is basically Bristol lingo bingo, with chicken wings! Let me break that down a little bit and put it more simply; instead of numbers on your bingo cards, you have Bristolian phrases or words on them, enter “Cheers Drive!” In between games you then get fed extremely tasty chicken wings – therefore resulting in the wonderful night that is Bingo Wings!

Thom being the glamorous assident and handing out the score cards

My score card

Back to Noche Negra… Lawrence and I arrived just before it was all about to get started so we gracefully shimmied our way to the front to join Meg, Frankie and the rest of the It’s Just Nice better halfs and hangers-on. Now, if you’ve ever seen a six foot two guy and a girl with a crutch gracefully shimmy to the front of anywhere with low tables and chairs you know it is quite the spectacle… You get where this is going.

 

The evening warming up…

The lovely Klyton, Frankie and Dave

Anyway, we got there in one piece and we got given our Bingo cards! The first round kicked off and it was tense, I mean real tense… Frankie wasn’t doing so well and we were all feeling the heat. Also, from not being from around these parts originally I had to ask Meg serval times, “what does ‘Glider’ mean..”, “what does ‘up the gas’ mean”?  You get the point…

You could have cut the tension with a knife and for an evening that’s just meant to be a giggle with mates, it all got a bit competitive.

Everyone was getting a bit into it… It was tense!

Relativity quickly a lady at the back got the first line, stood up and shouted, “Where’s that too?!” That burst a few bubbles and only left us with a full house to play for. (For those of you new to the Bingo lingo a full house is where you cross out all of the boxes –  it was new to me too). The tension cranked up a notch and finally Frankie started filling her scorecard, which was a relief to all of us. However quite quietly for some reason I just kept getting lucky and my Bristolian phrases kept appearing – I was in luck! It was getting down to the wire and for a moment it felt like it was me against Meg as we only both had a few boxes left to cross off (I am sure lots of people were also in that boat, but we were sat next to each other so it felt tense!)

Bristol Bingo!

All of a sudden I was done! I had actually bloody gone and filled up my score card! I had a full house so I stood up tried to say something Bristolian and waved my score card around like I was trying to get the teachers attention! I had done it, I had actually got the first full house of the night! How ace is that and how ace am I ( a massive personal big up here)! The only problem was, two other guys got it too and were standing up waving their score cards round…

The winning score card

Now, what happen’s in this situation?! Well, all is decided by a thumb war… tense! Given my current condition, recovering from my spine op and the fact I still have a crutch to stop me from falling over, I nominated Meg to take part in my place. First up the guys went against each other… The taller of the two won so he now he faced Meg, the Megatron from the Clevedon massive!

The first thumb war

Meg stepping up like a hero

As you can imagine, we could hardly contain our excitement, especially when Meg started smashing it! After about a tense minute of solid thumb warring, Meg walked away victorious and the whole room, who were on tender hooks, erupted into a good old Bristolian cheer!

I was completely gobsmacked that we had been victorious and that Meg had won the honour for the It’s Just Nice team! Girl’s are awesome fact!

Me hiding my excitement

So what was the prize for all this excitement? A £30 bar tab which we all enjoyed and a super ace Bristol mug which is hanging as a proud reminder in my kitchen! Meg is now a living legend of the thumb warring community and I am just chuffed I actually won something.

The champions!

After all that excitement, it was chicken wing time and wow, Noche Negra you did not disappoint! They were some damn tasty chicken wings served up and they were washed down with our winnings! After I’d been fed I had to call it a night (super lame after just one round I know), however, I was told that the other 2 rounds of bingo and chicken wings were just as ace! Not quite as exciting, but equally tasty.

Wings

I also publicly make this promise that I will not bail as early not the next one!

So I bet you’re all now dying to know when and where is the next one, right?! For their next event Bingo Wings are heading to one of Bristol’s secret little pubs, The Christmas Steps! Now these guys know more than most how to have a party so it’s going to be a really cracking Saturday shindig that will include not only your Bingo Wings but some guest DJs and a bit of dancing I’m sure! Now enough of my sales pitch get yourself over to their site and we shall see you there! (I’ll be sat at the front shaking my crutch like an angry old lady!)

Klyton was less than impressed that he didn’t win…