Number's up. How hesitant player won last bingo game.

A RELUCTANT visitor from Wangaratta scooped the $1000 jackpot in the final bingo game to be staged by the . or signup to continue reading The Wodonga Saturday afternoon institution, which originated in 1974, was conducted for the last time on June 15 by the disability charity which is being merged into Victoria-wide body Community Accessibility. The button was pressed on the ultimate computerised game at 4.

42pm with scores of number called before Yvonne Hilderbrand threw her arms up after landing the bingo digits. The Wangaratta retiree, aged 77, had only been to the Wodonga hall three times previously. "She didn't want to come," friend Sue Jenkins said before the Wangaratta group's driver Carol Pinney added "we talked her into coming".

Mrs Hilderbrand was then uncertain on what she would spend her winnings on, before saying "I'll take my son to the Gateway (hotel in Wangaratta), there's a beautiful meal down there". A bumper crowd of 150 assembled at the Murray Valley Centre for 30 farewell games which ran over two hours and had other cash prizes ranging from $30 to $200. Long-serving Murray Valley Centre chief executive David Martin addressed the audience before the jackpot game finale.

"It's the end of an era, it's the end of Murray Valley Centre as such," Mr Martin said. "We hope it's not the end of bingo, we're hopeful that the new organisation Community Accessibility, who Murray Valley Centre will merge with, take up the cudgels and see if they can run a bingo format an.