One from the archives here. A tale of three grannies, two of whom spoke of their immense relief at being awarded a share of a £200,000 bingo win.  Nora Sinkinson, 63, and Kathy Durr, 64, had attended a Merseyside Mecca Bingo Hall with their (former) friend Doreen Currie, 69, in October 2002.

As friends often tend to do, they decided to group together and it was decided that any winnings would be split between the three of them. Mrs Currie was lucky enough to win £119. However later that evening she went on to scoop a massive £213,000, upon which a sudden reticence developed. Much to their horror, she claimed that their agreement “no longer applied”, taking all of the money for herself and cruelly stating “There’s only one winner.”

Thankfully, the other two Southport grannies had other ideas and took her to court. They won resulting in £71,000, plus £3,000 interest coming to each of them.

A jubilant Nora Sinkinson said “I have always said that it doesn’t matter who calls ‘House’, you buy the tickets together, you share them out and you all have an equal stake in them. Go to any bingo hall and you will find nearly everyone plays it that way. That was our agreement on the night and that is why she paid us on the first win.”

Mrs Durr had mixed feelings “I am ecstatic about winning the money but we have lost a friendship.”

From 2o013, a big win at one of the 14 Mecca Firecracker events during which the company gave away £100,00 prize money to each lucky winner.