"It's ever so much nicer than staying home with the telly," cooed a middle-aged mum with crimped grey hair to her friend in flowered silk. Under the fringed pink lights of a big London ballroom, there were nearly 1,000 women like them—gossipping, knitting, spooning ices from paper cartons or drinking a "nice cuppa." Suddenly, over a loudspeaker came the command, "Eyes down!" There was an instant of silence and adjusting of spectacles as everyone grabbed pencils and peered at an array of cards. On the spotlit stage, numbered pingpong balls in a glass case began to dance like popcorn in...
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