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World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

(www.theguardian.com)
424 points notamy | 4 comments | 15 Oct 24 03:12 UTC | HN request time: 0.199s | source
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bee_rider ◴[15 Oct 24 03:43 UTC] No.41844720[source]▶
It seems like a bad move to have a participant responsible for drilling the holes and attaching the strings.

Also I don’t understand the one paragraph aside about the American who is never mentioned before or after(?)

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1. mbo ◴[15 Oct 24 04:48 UTC] No.41845046[source]▶
>It seems like a bad move to have a participant responsible for drilling the holes and attaching the strings.

Part of the "point" of conkers is that conker-prep is just as much as a skill as the technique during the hitting phase.

I think this was just poor scrutineering (or corruption) on the organizers side.

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2. bee_rider ◴[15 Oct 24 05:07 UTC] No.41845128[source]▶
That would make sense to me, but it seems like maybe it isn’t how they did it?

> Jakins was responsible for drilling and inserting strings into other competitors’ chestnuts as the competition’s top judge, known as the “King Conker”.

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3. ◴[15 Oct 24 05:18 UTC] No.41845185[source]▶
4. mbo ◴[15 Oct 24 22:40 UTC] No.41853871[source]▶
Ridiculous. A perversion of the true spirit of conkers.