Conkers

What connects British children, a piece of string and a nut you can’t eat? The answer is a game called conkers. For the last 150 years, children in the UK have collected shiny brown nuts from under horse chestnut trees in autumn. They use these nuts, called conkers, to play a game, which is also called conkers. To play the game, you need two players, two conkers and two pieces of string about 20 cm long. Each player makes a hole in the middle of the conker and pulls the string through the hole. They tie the string to stop the conker falling off. One player holds her conker up by the string, and the other player then swings his conker at the other one as hard as he can. Then it’s the other player’s turn to hold up his conker. The winner is the player whose conker breaks the other player’s conker. A new conker that hasn’t won any games is a “none-er”. A conker that has won one game, is a “one-er”, and so on. If two strings get tied together, the first player to shout “strings” can have another turn. If one player’s conker falls on the ground, she tries to shout “no stamps” before her friend can shout “stamps”. If she is successful, she can pick up her conker and continue playing. If she isn’t, her friend can “stamp” on her conker (break it with his foot) and he wins the game! Some people try to make their conkers harder by baking them, soaking them or keeping them for a long time. Some schools have stopped children playing conkers in the playground because they don’t want children to hurt themselves. Now there are even games of conkers you can play online, but they are not as much fun as the real thing!