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Conkers is a traditional children's game in Great Britain and Ireland played using the seeds of horse chestnut trees—the name 'conker' is also applied to the seed and to the tree itself. The game is played by two players, each with a conker threaded onto a piece of string: they take turns striking each other's conker until one breaks.
There is uncertainty of the origins of the name. The name may come from the dialect word conker, meaning "knock out" (perhaps related to French conque meaning a conch, as the game was originally played using snail shells and small bits of string refers to Conkers as "the same game as Cogger" and states that it is more generally known as "plying with a hard nut".). The name may also be influenced by the verb conquer, as earlier games involving shells and hazelnuts have also been called conquerors. Compton MacKenzie's 1913 novel Sinister Street uses the name Conquerors.
Another possibility is that it is an onomatopoeia, representing the sound made by a horse chestnut as it hits another hard object, such as a skull (another children's "game", also called conkers, consists of simply throwing the seeds at one another over a fence or wall). Conkers are also known regionally as cheesers, a "cheeser" being a conker with one or more flat sides, which comes about due to it sharing its pod with other conkers (twins or triplets). Also Cheggers was used in Lancaster, England in the 1920s. In D. H. Lawrence's book Sons and Lovers, the game is referred to as cobblers by William Morel.
The game was also played in Leicester, Massachusetts in the late 1970s and into the 1980s (and presumably much earlier, given the town's age and predominantly English/Irish settlers) by the children of the Primary School of the town (typically 4th and 5th graders). Leicester's seat of government ("town hall") was a dual use building, serving as both town hall and school. There is a large horse chestnut tree located on the town's common (and adjacent to town hall) that was used as a source for the chestnuts. The Leicester variant on the name for the game was "Horse Cobblers"(presumably a variant of "Horse Conkers").
A point is scored for a conker surviving a hit that causes the other one to break. The point is scored irrespective of whether the surviving conker was attacking or defending at the time.
The scoring of the game is considered to be a property of the conkers themselves. A new conker is a none-er, meaning that it has not defeated any others yet and thus has no score. As a conker accumulates points, its designation changes to reflect the total: a none-er becomes a one-er, then a two-er, and so on. (In some areas of Scotland, conker victories are counted using the terms bully-one, bully-two, etc. In some areas of the United States and Canada, conker victories are counted using the terms one-kinger, two-kinger, etc. In 1940s Brooklyn, New York, a winning chestnut was referred to as a killer and the value of a chestnut was defined by its number of "kills".)
In some regions, the winning conker receives all the points accumulated by the losing one, in addition to gaining one more point for the defeat. For example, a two-er that defeats a three-er would become a six-er (2 + 3 + 1). Other regions only award one point to the winner, regardless of the loser's score.
At the British Junior Conkers Championships on the Isle of Wight in October 2005, contestants were banned from bringing their own conkers out of fears that they might harden them. The Keith Flett claimed this was an example of over-regulation which was causing a drop in interest in the game. In both the World Conker Championship and the North American Championship, contestants are also restricted to using the conkers provided by the organisers.
One factor affecting the strength of a conker is the shape of the hole. A clean cylindrical hole is stronger, as it has no notches or chips that can begin a crack or split.
The Peckham Conker Championships allow artificially hardened conkers, with some players even coating their conkers in epoxy resin. This competition follows Battle Royale rules and also allows stampsies and stringies.
The first time that a non-British contestant won the Men's World Conker Championship was in 1976. The Mexican Jorge Ramirez Carrillo took the place of a contestant who was unable to arrive on time at Ashton, and defeated the 1975 champion at the finals. The men's champion has been British in every other year except 1998, when Helmut Kern from Nauort, Germany, won.
In 1999, the Irish Conker Championships began in Freshford, County Kilkenny, in Ireland.
Selma Becker, originally from Austria, was the first ladies' champion from outside the UK, in 2000. The title of Queen of Conkers has remained in the UK, except in 2001 when Frenchwoman Celine Parachou won.
Eamonn Dooley from Freshford in County Kilkenny, Ireland broke the world record in 2000 by smashing 306 conkers in one hour.
In 2004, an alternative World Conker Championships was first hosted at Pill Harriers Rugby Club, Newport, Wales. This championship, known as the World Annual National Conker Championships, has been held every year since and is sanctioned by Dogfish Promotions. Contestants from the United States, Italy, England and Wales have taken part.
The North American Conker Championship was inaugurated on 20 October 2012 at the Historic Gardens in the town of Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, Canada, hosted by the Annapolis Royal Conker Club.
The Peckham Conker Championships was first held in October 2017 in Peckham, London, playing a more extreme version of the game with Battle Royale rules which was organised by Peckham Conker Club. In 2023, more than 500 people from different parts of the UK took part in this championship.
At the 2024 World Conker Championship, controversy arose when the winner, veteran competitor David Jakins, dubbed "King Conker", was accused of cheating. Jakins was alleged to have used a replica conker made from steel. He has been exonerated.
In 2004, several schools in Britain 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. BBC News: School bans 'nut allergy' conkers (7 October 2004) (Accessed 2009-03-18)
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