Nuneaton and District Table Tennis League are celebrating after taking first place in the 2016 Nuneaton Carnival. The rain did not stop the crowds turning out to support the event, which raised over £2,000 for charity and good causes.

The carnival theme was ‘Sporting Greats’, with the club entering ‘Sporting Greats at the Pearly Gates’ as their float. The float had a heavenly theme to it, featuring a table tennis table in the clouds. Babe Ruth, Rocky Marciano, Bill Werbeniuk, Red Rum, Pickles the dog and even the world cup predicting Paul the Octopus made an appearance on the float.

“We need to promote the league within the town, and the Carnival is a great way of doing that – we had a table on the back of the lorry, and got through over 200 balls during the procession,” said Richard Costall, Social Secretary for the Nuneaton league.

The loss of the balls was intentional, meant as a memento from the league, and supplemented with handing out almost 1,000 leaflets during the parade, helped increase awareness.

There was more celebration to come though, at the presentation evening, where the league not only collected their first-place award for their category, but also collected ‘best overall float’ and ‘carnival chairman’s choice’ trophies.

Richard was thrilled with the way it worked out. He said: “The trophies were the icing on the cake for me. We increased awareness of the league, raised money for good causes, and also had a really enjoyable time on the day.

“Nuneaton and District Table Tennis league, the only place you can see Babe Ruth playing Rocky Marciano to the tune of chariots of fire.”

If you are interested in finding out more details about the Nuneaton League, or you are now inspired to enter a float in your local carnival you can contact Richard via twitter @costall or through the Nuneaton league @NunTableTennis twitter account.