A GREAT grandmother from Farnham has scooped a bingo prize of £55,000 - £1,000 for every year she has been playing.

Violet Varney (83) who has two daughters, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, was playing the National Bingo Game at the Gala club in Aldershot on Saturday night when her numbers came up.

She told The Herald that the first thing she did was cry and then she started laughing when the reality of her win began to sink in.

"I started to cry because I've never won anything in my life, but then I was really happy and a started to laugh," said Mrs Varney, who was born in Malta.

"My husband didn't believe me so I showed him the form - he was really happy and we've split the winnings because he gave me half the money to play."

Mrs Varney, who has been going to the club since it opened 22 years ago, won the National Bingo Game prize of £50,000 plus a regional prize of £4368.53 and a club prize of £50.54.

She completed a full house in 41 numbers, the fewest anywhere nationwide, and the final winning number that secured her success was 33.

"We're trying to decide what to do with the money," continued Mrs Varney, "but we'll definitely be giving some to our children and grandchildren.

"We've been planning a holiday since January and I've been saving whatever I can to pay for it, but this has made life much easier.

"I've never seen money like this before - I've always worked hard and saved every penny I can. The win has come at just the right time."

Mrs Varney is the second big winner to scoop the top prize at the Aldershot Gala - two months ago a 47-year-old woman from Farnborough walked away with £107,000.

The manager who was calling the numbers when Mrs Varney won was Aslam Mussa while the assistant manager on duty was Sue Smith.

The National Bingo Game is played every night of the year except Christmas Day, with two games on a Saturday. Since it began in June 1986, £638 million has been paid out to winners.

The top prize on most evenings is up to £100,000, plus regional prizes of several thousand pounds for a 40p bingo ticket.

On a Sunday nights the national prize is £200,000 with bingo tickets costing 50p. On Tuesdays and Saturdays the National prize is £50,000 with a ticket cost of 25p.

About 550 clubs in the UK link up to play the National Bingo Game, through a dedicated computer system in a £2 million state-of-the art game control centre.