Bourne Chess Club hosted their first bingo fundraising event for the club on 31/07/2025
The event took place at the home of Bourne Chess Club, Wake House in Bourne. In an evening filled with fun and laughter, there were no less than 6 games called on the evening with cash prizes of over £100 being won. The event was well attended with Bourne Chess Club committee members and chess players, friends and family and members of the public.
Participants to the evening were greeted with a free glass of wine or beer and were offered a fine selection of cakes donated from generous families linked to the club. The refreshments for the evening were provided by Peter who won the “Most improved player” in the club’s trophy presentation evening for the season. He did a spectacular job on the evening of keeping all the bingo players fed and watered with his unique kindness and care.
Greeting attendees was Vice-Chair of the Committee Andy Redhead who has been a loyal member and always ensures all the events for Bourne Chess Club run smoothly. Assisting Andy was David Hemingway who was co-ordinating the bingo strips and raffle tickets on the evening. Bourne Chess Club would like to thank all of the participants on the evening, as well as the kind donations for all of the raffle prizes that were valued at well over £100.
In particular, the Bourne Chess Club Committee would like to thank Nic Willett from Kokoni Creative Workshops, based at Wake House, Bourne for her extremely generous gift donation which was the top raffle prize on the evening. The winner of this particularly special prize now gets the wonderful opportunity to meet Nic and enjoy some wonderful time being creative with some beautiful jewellery designs. Nic has been providing the most stunning jewellery at her workshop for years and is proving to be a valuable asset to the people of Bourne and beyond for her personalised workshop services – see here for more information
Assisting Tom on the balls with the adjudication on the evening was Harrison Redhead who did a sterling job of verifying the wins for the bingo players. Harrison is himself an extremely able chess enthusiast and certainly an up and coming chess player in the making. Harrison successfully managed a large range of winners on the evening and along the way, everyone was having a lot of fun and laughter.
Harrison’s Dad, Andy Redhead, who is Vice-Chair of Bourne Chess Club said:
“A fantastic bingo evening was held in support of Bourne Chess Club, bringing together friends and supporters for a fun night—all while raising well over £100 for the club. Chairman Tom was on top form, calling the numbers and ensuring everything ran smoothly with his usual charm and unmistakable style. A big thank you to everyone who took part and helped make the event such a success! We had many requests asking us to organise another bingo evening – watch this space!”
To conclude the evening, David presented the Bourne Chess Club winner of the “Classical” section for season 2025 to Matt Bailey who received a large trophy and round of applause from the audience. Congratulations go to Matt for his success in the inter-league chess tournament. This was a very pleasant way to finish off what was an extremely enjoyable evening of entertainment.
Big thanks are due from all the members of Bourne Chess Club to everyone who attended the first of what will hopefully be many other bingo nights. The kind and generous support offered to the club is very much appreciated and not taken for granted.
The Committee is also grateful for the support provided earlier in the season from the Len Pick Trust and Bourne United Charities.
