[pave]

I was walking in a park yesterday and passed a Horsechestnut tree, got me thinking, I remember playing "Conkers" as a kid......................

The game is played by two people, each equipped with a conker threaded onto the end of a piece of string or an old boot lace. The players take turns at whacking their opponents conker with their own conker, with the aim of smashing their opponents conker to pieces. The winner is the player whose conker is still attached to the string.

All sorts of tricks are employed in the hope of strengthening a conker, such as baking it in an oven or polishing it with special waxes. A good strong conker can survive several games, and a record is kept of the number of other conkers it smashes. After it wins one fight it is known as a one-er! After winning two fights it becomes a two-er, and so on.


do they still play it?

[SimonH]

Originally Posted by pave

I was walking in a park yesterday and passed a Horsechestnut tree, got me thinking, I remember playing "Conkers" as a kid......................

The game is played by two people, each equipped with a conker threaded onto the end of a piece of string or an old boot lace. The players take turns at whacking their opponents conker with their own conker, with the aim of smashing their opponents conker to pieces. The winner is the player whose conker is still attached to the string.

All sorts of tricks are employed in the hope of strengthening a conker, such as baking it in an oven or polishing it with special waxes. A good strong conker can survive several games, and a record is kept of the number of other conkers it smashes. After it wins one fight it is known as a one-er! After winning two fights it becomes a two-er, and so on.


do they still play it?

Brings back memories...

[Steven]

Heh I remember trying it all - vinegar, super glue...

But I didn't put as much effort in as other kids in finding a good one.

Also remember they are poisonous Quite embarrassed to admit this, but I had to explain this fact to my dear mother as a distraught child when she destroyed me and my brother's secret stash (how did she find it? ) and she got one of those thoughts like some mothers do

[pave]

I guess now they would make you wear something like this before you would be allowed to play it...

Used to go to the local park and go conker hunting, come home with a bag full.......memories

[johntheexpat]

Health and Safety! You can break bones, get shattered bits of conker in the eye, mouth nose etc etc. Far too dangerous for todays culture.
I don't know about them being poisonous, but I do remember my mum telling me that during WW2, as a child she was sent out collecting conkers because they could be used in the pharmaceutical industry. But I couldn't tell you what role they played.

[WibXL]

I found a good one when a mates Dad gave us a sackful of conkers that he'd collected years ago and forgotten about. They were so old that the insides had dried up and when broken would explode in a puff of green mould Like I say though I found a really good one that was hard as nails and never beaten

I've seen news reports saying that schools have now banned conkers for H&S reasons or are making pupils wear safety glasses when playing. As with stories of that type though I don't know if it was actually just one school or widespread.

EDIT: A bit of information about the medicinal uses can be found here.

[johntheexpat]

Originally Posted by WibXL

EDIT: A bit of information about the medicinal uses can be found here.

Quote from link:
that means it is used for things like hemoroids and wounds, and other cases where shrinking and tightening of blood vessels is helpful.

So I suppose they would have been useful in wartime. My mum was telling it straight!
It's always nice when your parents tell it straight!

[Beetlejuice]

Also good for keeping the spiders away...

[WibXL]

Originally Posted by johntheexpat

Quote from link:
that means it is used for things like hemoroids and wounds, and other cases where shrinking and tightening of blood vessels is helpful.

So I suppose they would have been useful in wartime. My mum was telling it straight!
It's always nice when your parents tell it straight!

Also available in tablet form, not sure how you'd thread the bootlace through them though...

[vader100]

Taught my kids how to play last year. Nearly time to go collecting again this year.

[KyleG]

HAHA the good old game of conkers, was awesome when some kid thought he was ace because he had a huge conker and i had this tiny one but it was solid as a rock, as soon as it hit his conker it split his in to two, i was creased.
I drove past a huge conker tree a couple weeks back and it made me tempted to get some :P

[dakara]

Mission [IM] Possible/ Conkers
Health and Safety state that
" It is possible that there is a possibility that playing Conkers might possibly cause a possible injury, with possibly serious consequences.
Since the degree of possibility is impossible to quantify, the best possible option it to ban the playing of Conkers, thus avoiding the possibility of any possible injury"

Dictat No. 15725971a/ch/gim/24p /Conkers

[Ethics Gradient]

got to love the effeminisation of everything

[WibXL]

Out of interest has anybody here ever suffered from a conkers related injury? I can't remember getting anything worse than the odd crack on the knuckles.

[johntheexpat]

Originally Posted by WibXL

Out of interest has anybody here ever suffered from a conkers related injury? I can't remember getting anything worse than the odd crack on the knuckles.

Who did you sue for that injury and how much compensation did you win?

[daveaka]

I've never been injured 'playing' conkers but I've fell out of a few trees collecting them..

I can remember being about 8 yrs old, in the middle of an intensely close conker season, when my mate John came into school with some conkers his grandparents had brought him from france, no word of a lie they were the size of a medium braeburn apple...He destroyed all competition, I still have sleepless nights now when I think back to the destruction

[pave]

Cheat.....

I remember getting hit on the head with a large lump of wood as my mate was trying to get some out of a tree..

Thinking about it,could explain alot.............................

[WibXL]

Originally Posted by johntheexpat

Who did you sue for that injury and how much compensation did you win?

Back then you didn't sue... you got even

[square-eyes-baz]

Showed my 2 boys a year or two ago what conkers was and how to play it, they were excited to try this game they'd never heard of.
2 minutes later it all ended in tears , smacked knuckles and fingers and exploding conkers.