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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

#251

Post by cjrp »

BoxOfRain wrote: post #248
nickcw wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm one of that 'too young to be a millennial, too old to be a zoomer' cohort and we definitely played it in the '00s, I vaguely remember the rumours of it being banned encouraged its popularity quite a bit. They also banned British bulldog around that time so we renamed it 'hot dog' and carried on!

Side note, if you were playing conkers in the 00s are you still too young to be a millenial?

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

#252

Post by petemir »

_dain_ wrote: post #230
gandalfian wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understood that was a myth created from a few isolated instances and the medias general desire to wind people up. I don't know why it has died out mind.

Not a myth. I went to school during the twilight of the conker. It absolutely died because risk-averse teachers banned it, to howls of protest from us kids.

The myth is the game being a health hazard, not if it was banned (or not).

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

#253

Post by blitzar »

butterfly42069 wrote: post #241
blitzar wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Page 3: "Carly 32D, 21 from Ipswich, thinks EU regulations on conkers is against British traditions"

I'm not sure if that betrays more about your opinion of women than you may have been aware.

It probably betrays more about my contempt for how peoples biggotry is exploited to make them believe things that are not true. When that is not enough then show them some tits with the message and they will tell you all about how pigs fly.

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

#255

Post by sjwod »

oblio wrote: post #236

The British are living proof of the fact that amazing things[1] can be achieved when the place you live in is extremely boring. [1] For varied definitions of "amazing", such as "conquer countries 10x your size", "invent 20 sports the entire world plays", etc.

I would argue that "Counquer countries 10x your size" is a misrepresentation as generally the British (and other European powers) conquered lands in which there were multiple small kingdoms or relatively sparse populations of tribes or similar. That is certainly the case in North America and Oceania and I would argue also the case in India and Africa too.

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

#256

Post by oblio »

xg15 wrote: post #244
oblio wrote: post #236

The British are living proof of the fact that amazing things[1] can be achieved when the place you live in is extremely boring. [1] For varied definitions of "amazing", such as "conquer countries 10x your size", "invent 20 sports the entire world plays", etc.

> conquer countries 10x your size > invent 20 sports the entire world plays I mean, the two are kind of related, causally...

Football wasn't spread (just) through conquest.

The UK never conquered Argentina or Brazil yet if you'd look at football fans in both countries you'd think Argentina or Brazil not only invented football itself, but they also built an entire cult around it :-p

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

#257

Post by OJFord »

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…

Yeah, like saying 'tetherball' or 'keep-away' to someone in the US; which I only know from a Monk episode I watched last night.

I didn't know and wouldn't have guessed there were world championships, though.

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

#258

Post by ratherbefuddled »

schoen wrote: post #213
nickcw wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What are the health and safety risks from this game? Do the chestnuts fragment violently when they break up?

Mostly it increases teacher stress levels having to referee.

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

#259

Post by lazide »

schoen wrote: post #223
946789987649 wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

accidentally hitting each other

I can't really visualize the amount of momentum involved, or how sharp the chestnut is. Is that specifically about eye injuries, or could it hurt someone some other way?

If you whip it above your head at a good 100-200 rpm, anything is possible.

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

#260

Post by oblio »

sjwod wrote: post #255
oblio wrote: post #236

The British are living proof of the fact that amazing things[1] can be achieved when the place you live in is extremely boring. [1] For varied definitions of "amazing", such as "conquer countries 10x your size", "invent 20 sports the entire world plays", etc.

I would argue that "Counquer countries 10x your size" is a misrepresentation as generally the British (and other European powers) conquered lands in which there were multiple small kingdoms or relatively sparse populations of tribes or similar. That is certainly the case in North America and Oceania and I would argue also the case in India and Africa too.

India for sure wasn't conquered that way. Yes, there was a lot of "divide et impera" going on, but just one simple example, the population of Bengal was about 40 million in 1800 while that of the UK was only around 10 million.

Britain didn't actually "overpower" India as much as gain traction by presenting themselves as a less bad alternative than some of the existing ones, for several major regions they conquered. They were even financed by major Bengali bankers for their conquest.

India was possibly the big outlier in this regard, ergo the whole "crown jewel of the empire" angle.

Read this: https://a.co/d/7r25CnA - The Anarchy by William Dalrymple.

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