The 38th World Conker Championships were held on the village green in
Ashton, near Oundle, Northamptonshire (that's in England) on October 13th
2002. Winner of the men's final was Richard Swailes, 52, from Finedon,
Northants (England).  The winner of this year's women's trophy, Liz Gibson,
49, from Hurstpierpoint in West Sussex (England).

So it does appear that the Brits are still on top of this game.  However,
the previous woman's champion was French !!!

For those who wish to know more about conkers, the following site is a good
summary.
http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/conkers.html

Julian


----- Original Message -----
From: "David Strike" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, February 22, 2003 10:34 AM
Subject: Re: [SCUBA-SE] Conkers?


> On Saturday, February 22, 2003 8:33 AM, Michael Doelle wrote:
>
> >>We must still be world champions at conkers !<
>
> >Ahhh, wozzat?
>
> Fred, replied with, "Chestnuts"!  But to be more precise, a conker is the
> fruit of the Horse Chestnut.  A hole is drilled vertically through the
> chestnut and a knotted piece of string passed through the hole so that the
> thing resembles a pendulum.  Two players line up with their conkers and,
> having decided who gets first go, while one player holds the end of the
> piece of string and suspends his conker vertically, the other player takes
a
> whack at it with his conker.  The idea is to split and break the opponents
> conker.  Some people swore that soaking the conker in vinegar was a sure
> fire way to toughen it.  :-)
>
> Playing conkers  was also hell on the knuckles, especially when an
opponent
> "accidentally" missed hitting the conker and hit your hand instead!  :-)
>
> Strike
>