A GRANDMOTHER from Chippenham who won more than £51,0000 at bingo kept her good luck secret from her children for four days.

The bingo winner, 67, who has been playing the game for 40 years, was due back at the Gala Club, Swindon, last night just a week after scooping the jackpot.

This week she shunned the limelight and asked not to be identified but said: "It was very exciting. I have been playing bingo for many years but I have never won more than about £10 in the past."

Last Wednesday she was taking part in a National Bingo Game which links clubs across the country. Number after number on her card quickly came up but she then faced an agonising wait for number 68 to complete her card.

"I never thought I would win. Usually it only takes about 30 numbers for someone to get a fullhouse but this time it was more than 40," she said.

"I had to wait for about ten or 12 more numbers to be called before I got the final one.

"When it came up I went wild. I shouted out 'House' and all my friends started to scream. It was very exciting."

She won a half share of the £100,000 national prize, the regional prize of £1,069.84 and the club prize of £179.

Her husband, who drops her off at the club every Wednesday evening so she can join friends for the game, was waiting outside to collect her.

She said: "I don't think he could believe it at first."

The couple returned home to Chippenham and had a glass of brandy to calm their nerves but the bingo winner decided to wait until the weekend to tell her four children and seven grandchildren about the prize. Their first great grandchild is due soon.

"I just had to let it sink in first," she said. "I'm still not sure what we are going to do with the money. We may spend some of it on a holiday but we have no plans to move or anything like that."

The couple who celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary on Monday did not splash out on a big celebration.

"We just stayed home," she said. "We are not people to get too carried away."

The winner has been a bingo fan since her youth but says she only goes once a week and always to Swindon.

"I always meet up with the same friends," she said. "They are people I have met through playing bingo.

"My husband takes me and then he goes off and does his own thing while I play and then comes back to meet me. It is a very social evening. I go for that side of it as much as the chance of winning.

"I have had quite a few small wins over the years but nothing like this.

"Even when I was so close I didn't dream I would actually win."

Duty manager Lynn Burst said the whole club was delighted that one of their regular customers had shared the national jackpot.

"It was a very exciting evening. She is one of our regulars and it is great that she has won," she said.

The national bingo game is played across the country every night of the year except Christmas.

It was started in 1986 and since then £723 million has been paid out.

The other winner on the night the Chippenham grandmother won was a 38-year-old woman in Gateshead.