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World conker champion found with steel chestnut, cleared of cheating

(www.theguardian.com)
424 points notamy | 1 comments | 15 Oct 24 03:12 UTC | HN request time: 0.202s | 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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OJFord ◴[15 Oct 24 08:48 UTC] No.41846427[source]▶
Yeah, like saying 'tetherball' or 'keep-away' to someone in the US; which I only know from a Monk episode I watched last night.

I didn't know and wouldn't have guessed there were world championships, though.

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1. OJFord ◴[15 Oct 24 17:08 UTC] No.41850678[source]▶
Missed the edit, but just to add 'keep-away' is 'piggy-in-the-middle' in the UK, and I don't know if perhaps you have it too but 'swingball' is a similar game to 'tetherball' but played with a tennis ball & (typically not tennis, but just cheap plastic thing for the purpose) racket.