The conker line Posted On 11 September 2020
It’s a centuries-old game that’s been in decline, but some people still go bonkers for conkers:
They can be roasted. You can pickle, bake or coat them in clear nail varnish, but that’s frowned upon. Yet they are best au naturel, teased out of their prickly green case to be skewered, threaded on to a piece of string and swung at varying velocities in the direction of another of their kind in nature’s version of a demolition derby.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are talking conkers. And this month we are heading towards that season beloved of schoolboys from the age of 35 upwards.
Yes, it’s conker time!
Since the spring, their parent horse chestnut trees have blossomed and nurtured the fruit until the early autumn when, too heavy for their slender stalks, the chestnuts tumble to the ground.
Then it’s game on…. and it has been for a few hundred years.
Although the first recorded game of conkers was not until 1848, a similar pastime played with hazelnuts – also known as cobnuts – and snail’s shells has been around since the 15th Century. The fruits of the horse chestnut tree did not become involved until well after their introduction to this country from the Balkans more than 100 years later, when initially the nuts were ground and fed to cattle, deer but predominately horses – hence the name horse chestnuts.
However, the origin of the name ’conkers’ is open to debate. It may have been dialect for ‘hard nut’ but is believed to be French, from the word cogner, meaning to bang, or a conch shell – conque.
Safe to say, it’s nothing to do with William The Conkerer.
There are regional variations – it’s called ‘cheggers’ in Lancashire and in DH Lawrence’s ‘Sons and Lovers’ it is referred to as ‘cobblers’. But essentially it’s the same face-to-face combat loved by children of all ages and loathed by school caretakers and the Health and Safety Executive.
Their hostile background almost brought them into the war effort in 1917 when, in a secret initiative, children were offered money by the Ministry of Supply to collect conkers. A shipping blockade in the latter years of World War One had prevented cordite from America reaching Britain’s munitions factories, and it was discovered acetone needed for the production of the compound could be produced from starch, initially from maize but, when that ran short, from horse chestnuts.
Ultimately, though, there were issues transporting the vast quantities needed and the idea was mothballed.
However, it did nothing to dampen the fervour for the game and in 1965 the World Conker Championships were born, albeit in an unlikely setting and even unlikelier circumstances.
Legend has it that a group of anglers in Ashton, Northamptonshire, had to scrap their fishing trip because of bad weather and decided, because there were a lot of horse chestnut trees around the village green, to have a conker tournament instead.
A prize was quickly found and donations were made to a charity for the visually-impaired because one of the competitors had a relative who was blind.
It continued as an annual event, eventually outgrowing its original home and the decision was taken to move just up the road to Southwick, another village on the outskirts of Oundle, where it has been since 2013.
As the championships’ popularity has grown – ironically as general participation has waned because of bruised knuckles and injuries from flying shrapnel – categories have increased. Now there are prizes for the overall champion, plus men’s, women, team, junior and intermediate categories, but they still donate to charities for the visually impaired, raising almost £415,000 over the years.
This year, however, the championships on October 11 face a potential knockout blow from Covid-19 which could mean 27-year-old Jasmine Tetley from Derbyshire will not put her overall title on the line until 2021. A decision will be taken in early September.
See worldconkerchampionships,com for further details
Connect with us
View by date
Recent Posts
End of homeschooling to increase the number of properties coming to the market
Buyer demand and house prices rising and new properties coming to the market are expected to rise in line with the schools going back The latest study by Rightmove shows that demand from buyers is growing, with numbers so far this year way ahead of last year, however, buyer demand is outstripping new supply. …
Continue reading “End of homeschooling to increase the number of properties coming to the market”
Read more...
118 days to go!
Light at the end of the tunnel, as Boris Johnson announces ‘Roadmap” out of Lockdown which could mean a return to normality in 118 days Yesterday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the “roadmap” for easing restrictions in England and finally coming out of this long winter lockdown. The long-term aim is to lift all …
Continue reading “118 days to go!”
Read more...
Top Lockdown gadgets
The top 5 gadgets that have made lockdown more bearable Over the past year, people have been finding new hobbies and gadgets to get them through spending so much time at home… While some have turned to Netflix and other streaming services, others have turned to consoles, while others have spent more time …
Continue reading “Top Lockdown gadgets”
Read more...
Feng shui: the basics
During these lockdowns, it’s important to stay positive and be comfortable in your surroundings, which is what makes the practise of Feng Shui perfect Feng shui was developed over 3,000 years ago in China. It teaches people how they can balance the energies in any space with the arrangement of objects. This could be …
Continue reading “Feng shui: the basics”
Read more...
Search for life on Mars
Nasa Mars rover: Perserverance heads for touchdown on the red planet. After a seven-month, 470-million-km journey, Nasa’s six-wheeled robot is scheduled to land on Mars at 20:55 GMT today. Never has a science mission gone to the planet with so sophisticated a suite of instruments; never has a robot been targeted at so promising …
Continue reading “Search for life on Mars”
Read more...