Today, the residents of Hull experienced the launch of Ping! Hull, following the launch of Ping! Brum 2 weeks ago and Ping! London a year ago. The idea of Ping! is to put outdoor tables in parks, shopping malls, arenas etc. Also to get people active and social.

Everyday, table tennis is increasing in its popularity and many people enjoy playing the sport. Sport England’s Active People survey showed table tennis had an increase of 55,000 participants over the last 2 years, proving table tennis to be one of the fastest growing sports.

Table tennis has also proven to be popular in the world of the rich and famous. Barack Obama playing David Cameron was one of the stories that jump-started the sport and the fact that celebrities play the sport and try it out has promoted table tennis a lot. For example, actress Susan Sarandon created a club in New York called SPiN due to the fact that she just loves the sport. Michael Bublé described his experience of playing table tennis as “one of the coolest days” of his life. He had a day with Paul Drinkhall and Darius Knight playing and learning how to play table tennis. JLS were also an asset to the table tennis fan base; they attended a launch of a table tennis nightclub in Camden Town and enjoyed playing the sport. Kings of Leon were playing in their sell out tour at the 02 arena and whilst backstage the band enjoyed playing a game of ping-pong with Prince Harry! It is also said that an unexpected person is “addicted” to table tennis and that’s Amy Winehouse and a source which tells The Sun that, she can barely get out of the house due to her table tennis table taking up most of her time. Other celebrities who enjoy the occasional game are Andy Murray, Enrique Iglesias, Vince Vaughn, Christina Aguilera, and Jessica Alba.