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World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating
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Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating
#322Earlier 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 went to first school (3 tier system, first, middle, high) in the 1970s and we played conkers in the school yard in the 1970s, and into the mid 80s in middle school too. By the time I reached high school they'd been banned.
I see parents and children collecting horse chestnuts in the local market square and arboretum still today though, and it brings back fond memories of rapped knuckles and entanglement "clingy-niner's" or "clinchies" in some games, depending who you were playing with.
Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating
#323Is 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…
Here are some pictures of a previous championship: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/gallery/2015/oct/12/5... .
Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating
#324Earlier 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 saw on the wikipedia page the following totally stupid reason for the ban in some schools: In 2004, several schools banned conkers due to fear of causing anaphylactic shock in pupils with nut allergies. Health advisers said that there were no known dangers from conkers for nut-allergy sufferers, although some may experience a mild rash through handling them.[20]
Interesting, as conkers are seeds (not a nut) - so shouldn't be an issue for someone with a nut allergy - though no doubt some people are allergic to them.
Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating
#325Earlier 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?
After writing the above comment, I watched videos of people playing conkers and now I understand how it could, in theory, cause an eye injury. It was hard for me to visualize how close the defender's conker is to the defender's body before seeing the video. I was somehow wrongly imagining that it was being supported on a much longer string or with the help of other objects somehow.
Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating
#326Earlier quoted context omitted.
It just looks as though you have your own set of biases, just against people instead of against overly coddling rules. No one's mentioned the Daily Mail or the EU other than you and the other poster with similar biases.
The "legislation against playing conkers" is demonstrably false.
You're writing that as though you're quoting someone. Where are you quoting that from?
Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating
#327Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's more or less it. You make a hole through your 'conker' (horse chestnut, not the edible type) and thread a string or a bootlace through it. Then you take turns. One holds their string still and lets the conker hang down, the other gets a swing at it with their conker. Whoever's conker lasts the longest is the winner. There were all sorts of rumours about baking them, or soaking in vinegar or what have you to ha…
Here's a video that explains it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLGuZZraIqg And one from the championship: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5t6ej8Jzew And here I was thinking that curling was the most ridiculous-looking sport in the world. I stand corrected.
I don’t think conker players pretend it’s a sport. It would ihmo be more accurate to call it a game.
Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating
#328Earlier quoted context omitted.
I love how your comment is assuming that anybody here who's not British must be American. I'm Dutch and had never heard of conker before either.
I think the assumption is more that someone who's offended that the Guardian didn't explain a mainstay British playground game to their readers... Is probably from the USA.
Mainstay? First I'm hearing of it. I thought it was an onion article at first. It's really hard to tell when British people are serious sometimes. "Conker King"...like, WTH?
Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating
#329Re: World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating
#330I learned about conkers when I was very young and read the Hitchhikers Guide for the first time... "We bust our way into a megafreighter I still don't know how, marched on to the bridge waving toy pistols and demanded conkers. A wilder thing I have not known. Lost me a year's pocket money. For what? Conkers. The captain was this really amazing guy, Yooden Vranx," said Zaphod. "He gave us food, booze - stuff from real…
Would the word not be in a dictionary?
You'd need an encyclopedia to have any real chance of understanding what kind of game it is, a dictionary typically only gives very small amounts of context.