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.

Conker tips and tricks

 The conker season maybe a few months off, however we're getting ready to for the season by researching different facts around the game of conkers.

What is a conker

The first thing to know is that a conker is a nut that comes from the Horsechestnut tree, and falls off around autumn time - covered in a spikey shell, with a brown nut - the conker - inside.

How to play conkers

Conkers involves sticking a nut on the end of a string, and then trying to smash your opponents conker.  The rules of conkers have been developed up over time, and are pretty consistent across the UK - with the general idea being to take hits in turns - every 3 - and to play until the other person's conker is smashed.

Of course, scoring in conkers is really important - as you want to win and want to know when you've won your game of conkers.  There's tips here on how conker scoring works if you're interested.

The nice people at Peckham Conker Club have put together this video explaining how to play conkers:

How prepare your conker for a game

The general chat in conker circles, is that to win a game of conkers you have to prepare well - which involves first off trying to make a hole in your conker - by drilling a hole and not spearing your hand!  The other key thing to consider is preparing your conker by stringing it - and using the right string so that your conker doesn't fall off!

If you're a complete conker nut, then you could go to extremes and prepare your conker like these guys from the London-based Peckham Conker Club ;-)

We hope this short guide to the tips and tricks of conkers was useful . . .