Participants at the World Conker Championships may be allowed to harden their nuts by baking them, says the Daily Star. According to organisers of the event, which takes place in Northamptonshire on Sunday, unseasonable weather has left this year’s crop of horse chestnuts “soft and mushy”.
Very interesting - fun for all and money for charity … 
As a small child playing conkers, I never got my head round this:
Conker scoring
BBC - Norfolk Kids - Bonkers for conkers - The rules of the game.
If you want to be a real pro at conkers, you need to know how to score. We’ve broken down the scoring system for you here.
- If a conker has never been used before and succeeds in breaking another unused conker, it scores one and becomes a ‘one-er’.
- If, in the next game it breaks another new conker, it becomes a ‘two-er’ and so on.
- But, if this two-er loses a game and is broken, its score is added to the other person’s conker. So if they used a new conker on a two-er, it becomes a three-er and so on.
- If the conker that broke it had already broken others, then the scores of BOTH conkers are added together and added to the winner. So if you used a three-er on a two-er, then the score awarded to the winning conker will be five.
I just went for the thrill of the “smash” … 
A woman crowned “conker queen” said she felt “ecstatic” to take the title for the third time and don the coveted coronet at the World Conker Championships 2023.
Thousands of people gathered to watch horse chestnut experts battle it out at the event in Northamptonshire.
Jasmine Tetley from Nottingham won the women’s title, while Mark Hunter, from Northamptonshire, won the men’s.
In a final showdown between the pair, Ms Tetley beat Mr Hunter.
More than 250 competitors took part this year in the annual spectacle at Southwick, near Oundle, which has been running since 1965 and culminates with the crowning of the winners.
This year’s winner of the women’s competition, Ms Tetley, 30, from Nottingham, first won in 2019 and again in 2021.
“There was a lot of pressure at the end, to make that last shot,” she said.
“You never know who you’re going to play.”
Having won three times, she said she did not really feel like she needed to prepare for next year’s bout, but added: “If I win again, it’s amazing”.
Proudly sporting her crown, she said: “I’m really ecstatic.”
I was always renowned at school for my large conkers 
