Prince William and Kate Middleton play virtual bingo with care home residents

Royal couple even used 'bingo lingo' such as 'Six and two, tickety-boo'

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge turned bingo callers during a surprise virtual visit to a care home.

On Wednesday, Prince William and and Kate Middleton checked in with residents at the Shire Hall Care Home in Cardiff via video call, as residents played bingo in the home’s cinema.

With their own bingo spinner, the pair took turns holding up balls to the screen, calling out the numbers in “bingo lingo” as they joined residents Margaret Stocks, Margaret Jones, Ray Donoghue and Joan Drew-Smith for the game.

William told the residents: “Catherine is going to pick out the first ball”, before Kate held it up to the screen for them to see, announcing: “So, the first number is five and eight, 58.”

The duke then chose a ball and held it up, saying “one little duck, number two”, followed by Kate who reached for the next two balls: “Eight and seven, 87. Six and two, tickety-boo.”

It wasn’t long before one resident, Joan Drew-Smith called out: “I won”, prompting the couple to clap and share their congratulations.

While the royal couple appeared to enjoy the brief career change, laughing their way through the entire game, Ms Drew-Smith said their bingo calling skills were not quite up to scratch.

William asked Ms Drew-Smith: “How did we do at bingo? We did OK?”

Prince William and Kate Middleton tried their hand at bingo calling (PA)

To which she replied: “Very good. Wasn’t as good as it should have been”, prompting more laughter from William and Kate and the care home residents and staff.

The couple also spoke with Margaret Jones but her carer, sitting alongside her, appeared to echo Ms Drew-Smith’s assessment of the Cambridges’ bingo hosting skills.

Wearing a face mask and plastic apron – as did all the staff – she quipped: “They haven’t done so well in the bingo there”.

“Not so well,” laughed the duke, who added: “We’ll say a big thank you and goodbye to everybody. We’ll try and do a bit better at bingo next time.”

The royal couple joined residents at Shire Hall Care Home in Cardiff via video call (PA)

Kate added: “Stay safe everybody and thank-you for your time today, it’s lovely to meet all of you.”

Before joining the bingo game, the couple spoke with some of the staff from Shire Hall including Karen Grapes, the general manager, who said the home had experienced residents with Covid-19.

Ms Grapes also described the main difficulties the care home is facing from coronavirus, saying: “Yes. I mean, it has been quite a hard couple of months, I must be honest. I’ve been in the care home industry here for 12 years in Shire Hall and worked for Hallmark and we’ve never, ever – as you can imagine – come across anything quite like this.

“The challenges have really been around reassuring the team, the residents, and the relatives. Because that’s been our hardest challenge is the fact that the residents are missing their families, the families are missing their relatives and, you know, a lot of our residents have got dementia, so they’re struggling with dementia so it’s really difficult for them to try and understand. They don’t really understand what’s going on, but they know that their family aren’t here.”

Some residents said said the duke and duchess' bingo calling skills were not quite up to scratch (PA)

Sheila Charles, the lifestyles leader at the care home, went on to explain that the team is doing everything it can to keep morale high.

“To be honest with you, although it’s a terrible situation that the world and the country is in, we can still have fun, we can still have activities, you know, it is a positive daily live at Shire Hall at this moment,” she said.

William laughed, replying: “I’ve never known Welsh people not to know how to have fun.”

In recent weeks the duke and duchess have chatted to care workers from across the UK to hear about their experiences of providing care during the coronavirus outbreak, and to thank them for their efforts looking after the most vulnerable in society.

During one of the calls William said: “If there’s hopefully some positivity that comes on to this whole horrendous time, it is that there’s a light shone on all the wonderful things you all do and on the social care sector, and it allows people to acknowledge, respect and appreciate everything you guys are doing.

“And I think we are going to see a shift.”