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Virtually every British schoolboy once participated in this annual Fall ritual, conker fights with his mates. As far as I know this was a strictly British tradition. This was strictly an activity for the boys. Few girls participated. I'm not sure just when this tradition began. Many traditions have built up about how to prepare and harden your conker. There were many different systems. Some boys baked their conker in the oven. Others soaked it in vinegar. Some boys kept their system secret. Dad may have helped a bit here. A hole is
drilled in it and a string attached. Then the concor fights can begin. Boys kept score on how many strikes their concor survived. With the modern popularity of computer games, however, conkers appears to have declined in popularity, but they have not disappeared. Often these conker fights took place on the way to and from school when boys when cameinto contact with other boys wanting to test out their prize conkers. Thus many boys were wearing their school clothes.
Virtually every British schoolboy once participated in this annual Fall ritual, conker fights with his mates. The actual conkers are the hollowed out shells of a horse chessnut. Americans might know of them as buckeyes--at least in Ohio. Some of our readers refer to the conker tree. The schoolboy conker fights of course are a Fall ritual because this is when the conkers ripen and begin falling off the trees. A reader tells us, "They were encased in a green pithy shell covered in semi-soft spikes and, like chestnuts, would fall in the autumn from the trees in people's gardens overhanging the pathways to school."
I am not sure the oringin of the term "conker". We note that the work conk began to be used as slang meaning to give one a good knock on the head about 1805-15. This could have been the origin. Another possibility is the came "conquering" which was played with snail shells.
This is a quintessential British playground game. As far as I know this was a strictly British tradition. I know it is not an American tradition. At least I have never heard of American boys having conker fights. But then agin I di not grow up in an area like Ohio (the Buckeye state) that had lots of conkers. (Chessnuts are called buckeyes in the Midwest.) Nor do I have much information on Europe. A reader in Takikistan tells us about conkers there. "No worries about kids getting hurt from trying to collect conkers here in Tajikistan. They don't play the game but they do collect wind falls and play marbles with them. The British never realise how the conkers fall to the ground naturally as the kids get them long before they
fall. The conkers stay on the trees , unless blown off by the wind. First the conker shell is green but in time it goes golden brown. Eventually the shell splits open with a small pop and then the brown conker nuts and bits of shell fall to the ground. At the moment we walk down the horse chestnut lined avenue facing a daily shower of falling conkers. A direct hit and they are bouncing of ones head. They hurt too! It is quite funny and causes lots of laughter when the teacher gets hit! Boys are playing a dare game. They run up and down the avenue to see who gets bombed the most. The winner is the one who collects the most conkers which have hit him! I have been bombed several times. My total is two conker hits on my walk into work. I was beaten by a whipper snapper who got hit thrice. Conker Boncing I call the game."
This was strictly an activity for the boys. Few girls participated. We have found quite a number of photigraphs, abnd we have yet to note a girl being involved.
I'm not sure just when this tradition began. The term conkers describing the game began to be used about 1840-50. One source claims that the first known game of conkers using horse chestnuts was on the Isle of Wight (1848). Earlier children had apparently used used snail shells or hazelnuts. With the modern popularity of computer games, however, conkers appears to have declined in popularity, but they have not disappeared. We notice boys in schools battling with their conkers in the 1980s. A reader writes, "It is still played today, but more of an anachronism by boys who have learnt it at home from their parents I suspect." Actually the World Conker Championships were organize in Northamptonshire which has numerous horse chessnit trees (1965) and is still held. The tournament is held annually on the second Sunday of October. The participants were mostly adults. School children still have conker fights, but the activity is banned at mosr schools out of concern that injuries may occur.
Many traditions have built up about how to prepare and harden your conker. There were many different systems. Some boys baked their conker in the oven or more likely had mum do it. How long and at what temperature, we are unsure. Others soaked it in vinegar. Some boys kept their system secret. Dad may have helped a bit here. A hole is drilled in it and a string attached. Then the conker fights can begin. A reader tells us, "In my day string wasn't the sort of thing every boy would carry about - that belonged to a quite different time. A showlace was far preferable (and, of course, didn't fray and had great elasticity)."
All this interest in conkers ultimately came down to individual combat. This was done in pairs o combatants. The combatants took turns. We are not sure how it was decided who went first. Then one boy held is conker still so it dangled. The other boy than gave it a good wallop. I believe there were restrictions on how this was accomplished. Hopefully our British readers will provide us more details about these conker fights. The boy in the photograph here is giving in a flick rather than hauling back and swinging at it (figure 1). Some dictionary definitions use the term 'swing'. I'm not sure if the boy was allowed to really swing. A miss at a full swing could be very painful. A reader writes, "I'm not aware of ANYONE simply smashing their conker to hit the other one. You have no aim whatsoever with this - the flicking technique used in the photograph was universal." Another reader tells us, "Many a time in the Cub scouts I got a wallop on the thumbnail doing this activity!" Another reader tells us, "As far as I know the only way to hit a conker was as shown in the photograph here. This is how we all did it. You stayed in the game as long as you hit the opponants conker. Once a miss occurred then it was the other guy's turn. Boys kept score on how many strikes their conkers survived. Some claims of course had to be taken with a grain of salt. Conkers were 'named' depending on how many fights they had lasted. The whole object was to destroy your opponant's conker - the game was not finished until one of the conkers was irretrevably damaged. If you had destroyed 20 conkers with yours, it would be a 'twenty-er'... 21 a 'twenty-one-er' etc.
One British, Bill Ferguson, reader writes, "Oh the fun we had in collecting them. A collection of conkers. A big bag full. The collection could contain conkers from previous years. The harder they were the better. New conkers could not withstand being smacked by conkers made hard." Our reader has provided us a fascinating account of "Collectung Conkers" as a boy. There was a real process involved in gathdering ones conkers for combat. Bill tells us, "The Children?s game of conkers brought back fond memories of this game. I recall it was a late summer game played in September. This coincided with the start of a new school academic year. Collecting conkers was the first thing to do and this was often an evening activity. Our after school activities did not require that we change from school clothes to play clothes so we
did not bother and went conkering in our school clothes." We have an account about two best mates who found an untapped conker tree.
Often these conker fights took place on the way to and from school when boys when came into contact with other boys wanting to test out their prize conkers. Thus many boys were wearing their school clothes. As our reader tells us, this was also a popular activity for Cubs thus many boys woul havev been wearing their Cub unifirms. A reader writes, "The only reason we would be wearing school or cub uniforms would be because it was a game to be observed as much as played. It would only ever really be played where there were groups of us - and indeed, the
winner may move on to another opponent."
When the Home Guard began drilling to meet an expected German invasion in World War II, some wag commented, "They'll be using connkers next." Conkers were actually marginally involved in World War I. World War I broke out to the surprise of most world leaders (August 1914). Unlike World War II, no one expected it to happen. Most thought it would be quickly over. It prived to be a long, bruising conflict killing many and requiring vast quantities of arms and munitions. The proellent used in artillery shells was almost entirely cordite which had other military uses as well. Cordite was made from various forms of nitrocellulose. Britain with its enormous cotton textile industry mostly used cotton waste which was mixed with nitrated glycerine. The manufacture of cordite required solvents, acetone and ether-alcohol. Acetone was produced by distilling wood. This proposed a problem for Britain which no longer had large forested areas. Instead corn was imported from Canada and America. When the U-boat campaign began to restrict imports, British scientists developed a process for using that British schoolboy staplke--the conker (horse chessnuts).
A British reader writes, "I came across something that might interest HBC. Or at least make readers laugh (or cry if you're anything like me at how kids are so restricted now and so lose their childhood). I told you that I never played conkers as the first time I did I got slightly hurt. There were �conker clothes� in the sense that my opponents wore leather gloves so they could wrap my knuckles �accidently� with the coker and I couldn't get revenge � not that I wanted too then � I wanted a fair game and when I couldn't get it I gave up." Now there's a school in Cumbria is insisting that children wear industrial goggles to play conkers in! [bbc--"Pupils".]
Authorities in other places are cutting down the conker trees in case kids get hurt collecting them. [bbc--"Fury".]
A reader writes, "This truly is mad. They are destroying childhood." While we tend to agree that authorities can go overboard, especially the idea of cutting down trees. But there is no doubt that accidents will happen with boys in trees. The BBC reported just such an accident resulting in the tragic death of a Yorkshire boy, Louis John Read, in 2005. [bbc--"Conker".]
The tragic loss of this charming little boy eaises the question as to how far authorities should go to protect children. His parents stress the importance of parents taking with their children about saftey. A reader writes, "A sad story about the Yorkshire boy. This type of accident does not occur often. Thank goodness! And most climbing tree experiences are great adventures. I suppose its one more hazard in life. It was the railings he fell on that was the reason he died. Road accidents probable take the highest share of child fatalities. A good point to make and I expect if you start in 1900 and trawl through the British Press you'll find lots more conker accidents." We note that at the Conkers Championship, goggles are availsable, but not required. [bbc--"Action".]
Most British readers will recall conquer fights from their school days. Hopefully they will share some of those experiences with us. One reader has provided us his London experiences in the 1960s. He wasn't a great conker warrior, but definitely remembers them.
"Action to tackle conkers cheats," bbc.co.uk, October 8, 2005.
"Conker boy dies impaled on fence," bbc.co.uk, September 21, 2005.
"Fury at lopped down conker trees," bbc.co.uk, September 22, 2004.
"Pupils wear goggles for conkers," bbc.co.uk, October 4, 2004.
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