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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: 0.561s | source
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thatguymike ◴[15 Oct 24 04:04 UTC] No.41844833[source]▶
I'm surprised they pick their conkers out of a bag. The whole fun when I was a kid was competing for who could find the toughest conker. Common cheating methods included putting it through the tumble dryer to dry it out (Mum didn't love that) or soaking in vinegar. If you're pulling conkers out of a bag I think each match is basically a coin flip, unless there's much more technique I'm missing?
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zabzonk ◴[15 Oct 24 04:36 UTC] No.41844988[source]▶
As someone that played it over 60 years ago, there is quite a bit of technique involved - for example, aiming to hit the opponent's conker accurately and hard.
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thatguymike ◴[15 Oct 24 14:32 UTC] No.41849039[source]▶
Wouldn't that newton's-second-law your own conker just as hard though? As the aggressor you get to choose the points of contact, which must be where the accuracy comes in. If you can strike your opponent downwards you're more likely to knock them off the string and lead to Stamps.
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1. grues-dinner ◴[15 Oct 24 19:52 UTC] No.41852433[source]▶
While obviously all three laws do apply to a usual conker match (if not, the radiation from the plasma sheath and relativistic shrapnel is probably the bigger concern that the result of the match), I think the third law is the one you mean: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.