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World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

(www.theguardian.com)
424 points notamy | 3 comments | 15 Oct 24 03:12 UTC | HN request time: 0.7s | source
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umanwizard ◴[15 Oct 24 03:33 UTC] No.41844648[source]▶
Is 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 instantly obvious to even a casual observer that the look and sound were wrong. So maybe I’m still missing something.

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red_admiral ◴[15 Oct 24 08:53 UTC] No.41846461[source]▶
It is a very, very British thing. A generation or two ago, almost everyone played it at school and it was Very Serious Business. I guess you needed something to occupy yourself before Pokemon Go was invented.
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1. nanna ◴[15 Oct 24 09:39 UTC] No.41846761[source]▶
I have fond memories of playing conkers in primary school. Sometimes you got a rapped knuckle but children's sports is full of cuts and grazes, and it didn't hurt as much as slaps anyway. The main issue was that some kids would inevitably harden their conkers by putting them in the oven or lacquering them, and so on. But spotting that was part of the charm.
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2. flir ◴[15 Oct 24 09:43 UTC] No.41846786[source]▶
Being of a geeky bent, I tried them all. It never worked. They go brittle and shatter, or they go soft and fall apart.

(When I was a kid, conkers were so prized we chucked sticks at them to try to get them to drop. So it was a bit of a shock to me when they started just being left where they fell. Kids today, off my lawn, uphill both ways, etc etc).

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3. nanna ◴[15 Oct 24 15:59 UTC] No.41849931[source]▶
Cheaters never prosper!