Contestants gearing up for this year’s conker tournaments have been forced to freeze the seeds they use to compete, after stormy weather caused them to drop earlier than normal.
Every autumn hundreds of people compete at conkers, a traditional British children’s game in which participants use a conker threaded on to string to strike their opponent’s conker until one breaks.
James Packer, the chair of the World Conker Championships, said they had frozen conkers before in case supplies ran out but had never had to use them until now.
“It’s always been a bit of a backup plan but we’ve never had to do it. We try to get them as fresh as we can, really,” he said. “But the last few years there seems to be a problem where we get a storm before the competition that brings all the conkers down off the trees, and then various wildlife disappear with them before we can get our hands on them.”
He said they tried to gather 3,000-3,500 conkers for the event, which takes place in Northamptonshire on the second Sunday in October every year, to make sure there were enough suitable ones for people to compete with.
They typically get about 250 people fighting to be crowned King and Queen Conker, battling it out in knockout rounds throughout the day, with a fresh conker for each match.
“Frozen conkers do tend to play quite well. But we have to make sure they’re thawed out beforehand. We certainly wouldn’t play with any that are still frozen,” Packer said.
The Waveney Valley conkers tournament, taking place in Norfolk on Sunday, has a more lax approach to the conkers being used to compete. “I keep some in the fridge, I keep some in a freezer, I pickle some in alcohol,” said Yanny Mac, a referee and organiser of the event.
“Those high winds we had six weeks ago meant the conkers fell off the trees a little bit earlier,” he said. “But the trees drop whenever they want to and Mother Nature, she’s a fickle beast. If she drops her conkers early, it shouldn’t mean you can’t play.”
He said that over the years conker crops had fluctuated as a result of changing weather patterns, and players had to adapt to different types of conker.
“When it comes to conkers, it doesn’t matter how big it is, how small it is, how mushy it is, how shiny it is, it all adds to the fun and the spectacle,” Mac said.
He said the more serious concern was around the rise of bleeding canker, a bacterial infection that affects horse chestnut trees and has been on the increase in the 21st century. “It would be a shame if we lost conkers, they are very much the signifier of autumn,” he said.
As well as preserving the conkers themselves, organisers said they hoped the tournaments would help to preserve the game for generations to come.
Packer said: “We do find the age we’re having to teach people how to play conkers because they’ve never done it before is getting older every year. But we’re looking at a bumper competition and we’re incredibly busy; we’ll have to cap the entries soon. There’s still lots of interest.”
