AN OKEHAMPTON green-keeper has struck it lucky and scooped a massive £109,000 over Easter playing bingo.
Stewart Partridge, 32, was playing the game at the Mecca Club in Exeter on Sunday evening when he won the National Bingo Game Prize.
The green-keeper at the Manor House Hotel has been a member of the club for just six months and he plays bingo there once or twice a week with his wife Lesley. The most he had won in the past was £500.
'I could not believe it,' said a shocked Stewart. 'It's still not really sunk in.'
The National Prize was £200,000 but Stewart had to share it with a player in Blyth who also completed a 'full house' in 39 calls, the fewest anywhere nationwide.
On top of his £100,000, the player won the regional prize of £9,274 and the house prize of £146.
Stewart, who lives at Stowford, said he felt lucky every time he played bingo and had always dreamt of winning the big prize.
'It was about halfway through the evening when the final number on my card '68' came out,' he said. 'I just sat there and thought 39 calls is pretty low maybe I have won the regional prize.
'I had to wait until nearly the end of the evening to find out I had won the national prize. You hear of people up country winning it — to find out I had a share was totally unbelievable.'
Stewart said he could not stop shaking and instead of having a few drinks to celebrate it was more a case of having them to calm himself down.
'Sunday night we could not sleep,' he said. 'I don't think it will sink in until I have the cheque in my hands and then I will know it is really mine.
'For an average couple like us this is a huge amount of money to win,' he added.
The bingo player is not certain how he will spend the £109,000 but the couple will probably treat themselves to the honeymoon they never had two years ago because of lack of finances.
'I will probably do what people would do — sort out the house, maybe buy a car and go on holiday,' said Stewart.
Stewart and Lesley became regulars at the Mecca Club after they found it was a 'good night out'.
Six hundred 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.
'The blokes at work used to take the mickey out of me because they thought it was only old people who played but that it not true at all,' said Stewart.
'Now I have won the big prize they are keen on going themselves.'
Stewart said everyone was delighted about his win: 'Family and friends always read about lottery winners and bingo winners in the press but now they actually know someone who has won this sort of money. They are as excited as we are.'