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World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

(www.theguardian.com)
424 points notamy | 2 comments | 15 Oct 24 03:12 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | 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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nickcw ◴[15 Oct 24 07:35 UTC] No.41845876[source]▶
I used to play conkers at school in England, however my children didn't.

The reason? Schools have banned the game of conkers due to health and safety reasons.

I asked my 17 year old this morning and he had never even heard of the game of conkers.

So I think the age of conkers is passing, alas.

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schoen ◴[15 Oct 24 07:54 UTC] No.41845994[source]▶
What are the health and safety risks from this game? Do the chestnuts fragment violently when they break up?
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946789987649 ◴[15 Oct 24 07:56 UTC] No.41846007[source]▶
accidentally hitting each other
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schoen ◴[15 Oct 24 07:57 UTC] No.41846031[source]▶
I can't really visualize the amount of momentum involved, or how sharp the chestnut is. Is that specifically about eye injuries, or could it hurt someone some other way?
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1. schoen ◴[15 Oct 24 10:33 UTC] No.41847094[source]▶
After writing the above comment, I watched videos of people playing conkers and now I understand how it could, in theory, cause an eye injury. It was hard for me to visualize how close the defender's conker is to the defender's body before seeing the video. I was somehow wrongly imagining that it was being supported on a much longer string or with the help of other objects somehow.
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2. ryanjshaw ◴[15 Oct 24 10:53 UTC] No.41847209[source]▶
Literally the first video I watched, 2:28 min in, kid gets knocked in the teeth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egBjZaKNLuc