“”Wanna play conkers?”

“”Wanna play conkers?”

Horse chestnuts waiting to be made into conkers

I'm not sure if this tradition still exists in England but when I was young( yes I was once!) one of the favorite games to play especially in the Autumn was Conkers.

First you had to find a horse chestnut tree and see if the conkers were ripe and ready. You had to make sure it was a horse chestnut and not a sweet chestnut because sweet chestnuts are the nuts that were roasted over the fire and were not suitable for conkers.The conkers were the glossy, hard, chestnut colored fruit wrapped in a prickly green cases. They hung on the tree and eventually would fall down. I do remember sometimes throwing stones and sticks up into the tree to knock the fruits down. Those trees were huge.

One you had a conker you would get someone to help you put a hole through the center . Then you would thread a piece of string through the middle, knot the end of the string and you were ready to start the game.

Taking aim

The game was played between 2 people and they take turns. One person holds his conker hanging straight down while the other person aims his conker at the enemy conker hoping to break it off the string. Sounds simple but these games would go on for a long time before the conker would crack and you would either win or lose. If you won one game you would have a “oner” If you had a really winning conker it might be a “fiver” or even a “tener” and you would get challenges from other kids with their favorite conker. It was always sad when your favorite conker eventually got smashed and you had to start again.

All kinds of things were done to make your conker especially hard so it could withstand the blows from the other side. I remember putting mine in a bowl of vinegar and leaving them in the shed. I can't remember if it made any difference but I guess it probably made them soft or smelly if left too long. The best thing to do would be to keep a conker from one year to the next , then it would be a really super hard conker ready to defeat all challengers.( if you could find it!!)

Fun game, no cost . I wonder if it is still played....

This page tells you in great detail more about the game.

http://projectbritain.com/conkers.html