Eyes down, ears shut! Ghostly singer’s wailing ruins bingo

Weekly bingo and games sessions at a community centre have been enlivened by a mysterious – and ‘terrible’ – singer.

The man regularly sang over the speakers at the Darfield Community Centre in Barnsley when the bingo numbers were being called.

Despite concerns they were being haunted by a tuneless ghost, consultation with a telecoms expert suggested a nearby resident was singing into a wireless microphone that used the same frequency as that used by bingo caller David Baker, 63.

The interruptions caused great hilarity among the 30 or so pensioners attending the Tuesday afternoon sessions which Mr Baker’s wife Christine, 70, helps to run.

‘He has a really terrible voice, it sounds like an animal in distress,’ she said.

Mr Baker had to stop using the hall’s wireless microphone and shout the bingo numbers instead. Mrs Baker said they think the singer was aware of what he was doing because he would have been able to hear the bingo. He has now stopped.

Betty Hudson, one of the bingo regulars, said: ‘We all thought it were ghosts actually. He were a rotten singer.’