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World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

theguardian.com

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Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

#191

Post by butterfly42069 »

Symbiote wrote: post #185
butterfly42069 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it is banned in schools. I'm not sure how many adults you believe actually play conkers, beyond a few nutters (sic), but its mainly been banned for the people that used to actually enjoy it, kids. I do wonder if by banning it in schools it will get less and less common till it disappears. I suppose you predictably think that's nonsense. But pedantry aside, its banned for the people who used to play it most and e…

You're downvoted because you're repeating unfounded tabloid rage-bait, hours after someone else posted a reliable source showing the opposite.

Ah yes your experience of a 2008 BBC news article from Copenhagen outweighs my lived, witnessed reality.

How could I be so clueless?

Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

#192

Post by riffraff »

dageshi wrote: post #184
riffraff wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ho do you drill the hole? I'm having trouble imagining kids with needles in their pockets, do you do it with a pencil or toothpick? We've got a ton of horse chestnuts in my neighborhood but I've never heard of this game and I'm eager to introduce it to my kids. Also, doesn't the conker spiral around your hand hitting it and hurting you?

We randomly had something like this in our kitchen draw... https://www.amazon.co.uk/SpitJack-Trussing-Butchers-Roasting... Attach string, push through, detach string and remove.

sweet!

Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

#193

Post by blitzar »

bboygravity wrote: post #113
willvarfar wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is silly. Conkers aren't a rich person's sport, and this article in the guardian isn't pushing any political subversive subtext.

News is what you don't get to read. The rest are political ads.

I heard the conkers cheater was an illegal immigrant, the establishment covered it up and now they wont even report on conkers anywhere in the main stream media (/s?)

Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

#194

Post by easytiger »

raffraffraff wrote: post #147
conductr wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m American and never heard of this sport in my life yet article painted a similar picture in my mind.

It's not a sport, it's something that kids used to do pre 1950s. People were poor, didn't have manufactured "stuff", so they made their own toys out of simple things like stones, sticks, old wheels etc Football was likely popular because a single ball could keep a while bunch of kids happy for an afternoon (if someone could actually afford a ball). I'm almost 50, and to me the image of boys playing conkers only comes…

> I'm almost 50, and to me the image of boys playing conkers only comes from books or TV based in early 1900s UK. I've never actually seen anyone play it.

Extremely common for kids to play this at least into the mid 2000s where i'm from, i moved away so i don't know if they still do

Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

#195

Post by scalesolved »

raffraffraff wrote: post #147
conductr wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m American and never heard of this sport in my life yet article painted a similar picture in my mind.

It's not a sport, it's something that kids used to do pre 1950s. People were poor, didn't have manufactured "stuff", so they made their own toys out of simple things like stones, sticks, old wheels etc Football was likely popular because a single ball could keep a while bunch of kids happy for an afternoon (if someone could actually afford a ball). I'm almost 50, and to me the image of boys playing conkers only comes…

> I'm almost 50, and to me the image of boys playing conkers only comes from books or TV based in early 1900s UK. I've never actually seen anyone play it.

Did you grow up in a city? I'm mid 30s and we used to regularly play conkers in the village where I grew up.

Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

#196

Post by riffraff »

Nursie wrote: post #152
riffraff wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ho do you drill the hole? I'm having trouble imagining kids with needles in their pockets, do you do it with a pencil or toothpick? We've got a ton of horse chestnuts in my neighborhood but I've never heard of this game and I'm eager to introduce it to my kids. Also, doesn't the conker spiral around your hand hitting it and hurting you?

A gimlet? Hammer and a thick-ish nail? Honestly I can't remember how we used to do it. Might even have used a hand drill at some point. They're fairly soft when you've made a hole in the shell, so you might get away with a screwdriver? When at school we probably made do with a compass (the drawing kind), as we all had them. I'm sure that resulted in a pretty high rate of conkers being destroyed before they could be s…

compass makes a ton of sense, and that is indeed a sweet video, thanks for sharing!

Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

#197

Post by nickcw »

School-Cotton wrote: post #2

Is this game well-known enough in Britain and Ireland that readers will know what on earth is being alleged just from reading this article? Or are you expected to have to google it? Apparently it’s a game where you take turns swinging a chestnut on a string and trying to hit the opponent’s chestnut and break it. Yes, I can see how a steel fake chestnut would be an advantage here, though I’m amazed it wouldn’t be inst…

I used to play conkers at school in England, however my children didn't.

The reason? Schools have banned the game of conkers due to health and safety reasons.

I asked my 17 year old this morning and he had never even heard of the game of conkers.

So I think the age of conkers is passing, alas.

Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

#198

Post by blitzar »

ccppurcell wrote: post #80
FearNotDaniel wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, conkers is sufficiently well-known enough as a children's schoolyard game that I would expect pretty much every newspaper-reading adult to have heard of it. The fact that there is supposedly an "adult" championship event would be a surprise to most. If you're looking for the "story behind the story", other than the fact that it's a seasonally-specific, light human-interest story: there is probably a slight cultu…

It never occurred to me that conkers could be a class thing and you could be right. But let it be known that conkers was extremely popular at my state school; me and all of my friends grew up to be pretty left wing too by the way. Also they banned it at my school, along with pogs, yoyos, etc.

Eton wall game is a class thing. Conkers is not.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eton_wall_game

Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

#199

Post by Rattay »

raffraffraff wrote: post #147
conductr wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m American and never heard of this sport in my life yet article painted a similar picture in my mind.

It's not a sport, it's something that kids used to do pre 1950s. People were poor, didn't have manufactured "stuff", so they made their own toys out of simple things like stones, sticks, old wheels etc Football was likely popular because a single ball could keep a while bunch of kids happy for an afternoon (if someone could actually afford a ball). I'm almost 50, and to me the image of boys playing conkers only comes…

Yeah, very much fron the 1950's 'Beano' era, but it did still go on in the mid 90s, at least in a wild throwing them about the place as entertainment. It was indeed a simpler time.

A lot more kids in the background smoking cigarettes around the bike sheds as well, but that's another story :)

Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

#200

Post by blitzar »

bee_rider wrote: post #31
aniforprez wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People cheat on online cooperative computer games like Helldivers with almost no rewards for being performatively better other than a few imaginary in-game points. People can be weird about the smallest things

Cheating at a PvE game like Helldivers is basically a victimless crime (I don’t do it, but I can see why people would).

It is a crime against oneself.
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