A new Coalville-based sports club is growing in popularity - less than a year after starting up.

Not only that, it has already been nominated in a prestigious local award ceremony.

Pickleball Coalville started out last year as a trial set up by North West Leicestershire District Council - and it proved popular enough to set up as a regular club a few months later.

Now the group meet at the Whitwick and Coalville Leisure Centre sports hall, with numbers growing.

One of the club's founders, John Lewis, told Coalville Nub News that the game is catching on - and has no real age limit.

He said: "We have what you might call players who are mature, but not old and certainly not ready to give up sport.

"It's a great game for weight loss and fitness. We've been backed by the District Council and we hope to grow even more next year."

Such has been the impact of the game in Coalville that it has been nominated, along with John, at last week's Let's Get Moving Awards in Ashby.

Pickleball is a racket or paddle sport in which two (singles) or four (doubles) players hit a perforated, hollow plastic ball with paddles over a 34-inch-high net. While it resembles tennis and table tennis, pickleball has specific rules, paddles and court dimensions.

John added: "The council started the whole thing off as a community at trial, and they've been really good.

"I started playing for my own fitness, it takes you back to your youth!

"But we only really started going around December time last year, so the whole set up in Coalville is less than 12 months old.

"We've been consistently full over the last few months, there's about 18 of us who play regularly.

"It's not a membership, just pay and play, everything's provided. Really, it's just about trying to get people to come down the place. It's a mixture of badminton, tennis and table tennis but you play with a paddle not a racket. 

"It's a less impactful sport, wthout too much body stress. So it is really useful for getting us all going again.

"You can get engrossed in it."

John says that anyone who is interested in coming along to play can find out more details on the Pickleball Coalville website HERE.