Guide to playing conkers UK

Conkers is a popular game in the UK, played around the autumn period - as horse chestnuts - otherwise known as conkers in the UK - fall from the trees.

Unlike many nuts, the conker is a poisonous nut and is therefore inedible.

Therefore the question is - what can you do with a conker?

And the question is if you can’t eat it - play with it!  And so was born the game of conkers, now a staple bit of autumnal fun in the UK.

So how do you play conkers?

The rules of conkers are fairly simple, and involve two people standing opposite each other with their conkers on strings - trying to hit each others conkers.  The idea is that the first person to have their conker smashed - loses.

From the simplicity of this game, the game has evolved with various spins off evolving - as happens with games.

The first is how scoring works in conkers.  The short of this is basically points are won from the opponent - i.e. if you play someone who has a two-er and you’ve got a two-er, then your conker becomes a four-er.  The ‘er’ moniker is a standard way of talking about conkers.

The second is around conker equipment - and what people play conkers with.  Of course the main ‘tool’ other than the conker itself is the string which the conker hangs on.  Typically kids would steal / borrow the shoelaces of friends to play with.  This has evolved into custom conker strings being developed, to create the best string possible for playing conkers.

Finally as with all good games there are conker competitions.  And the biggest of these conker competitions is the World Conker Championships - which is held in a village in Northamptonshire in the UK.