"Did you ever play Conkers?" Topic

I just stumbled across a video on YouTube about playing Conkers. I remember Bilbo mentioning it in the first Hobbit film.

Bilbo
YouTube link

How to play Conkers
YouTube link

Yes when I grew up in England years ago. Now I think the game has been declared a hazardous undertaking since the old horse chestnut trees have been replaced by the new "softer and gentle" conker variant for safety of school age children and old adults. The newer tree conkers cannot take the few impacts, unlike the old rock solid ones, and shatter sending flying debris into unwary eyes and spectators alike. In my day…… sometimes we missed and hit the opponents hand…. it hurt.

Kids still play conkers round here. Baking them in the oven to make them harder (and brittle) is optional

u had to add a knot in your string for each enemy conker u killed .

Chestnut trees were like apple trees in my childhood. Carefully protected by the owners and the local gang.

My gang always had to go raiding elsewhere as there were neither on our patch.

Of course. Knew where all the best conker trees were (and still do)

You could be sure when you threw a stick up to knock them down, the biggest would always land in a cow pat.

Nice. Reminds me of yard darts, in that it was both fun and dangerous.

We used sling shots to shoot chestnuts at each other, never occurred to us there was anything else you could use them for.

Of course! The best I had was a Thirty-Niner, steeped in vinegar overnight and baked in an oven.

Hardly good form for a hobbit, but a fearsome beast any Orc would be proud of!

Cool Stories, Thanks

I have a conker tree next to my patio, I get hundreds of them each year :)

Hah, neat. Never heard of this game. I grew up in a street that was lined on one side for about 8 or 10 blocks with Chestnut Trees. We had contest to see who could collect the most. Never played (or heard of "Conkers", but we did soak, boil and eat them for weeks when the fell.

I wonder if the idea for Clackers came from "Conkers".
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clackers

Never heard of it. And I grew up with a horse chestnut tree in my front yard.

I had a sixer that Matthew Goldsmith stamped on when it busted his 26er. 35 years later it still stings. I will have my revenge, in this world or the next.

Yes

Of course, I'm English. It was the national sport for under 10s when I was growing up. Had many a bruised knuckle during the season!

Also known in the USA as "Buckeyes"