Tree World Olympics

October 6, 2010 at 8:00 am · Filed under england, international travel, tourism, travel and tagged: conker championship, conkers, horse chestnut tree, travel writing

By Linda Tancs

Every October on the second Sunday of the month near the English village of Oundle in East Northamptonshire the folks go bonkers for conkers.  So on 10 October make your way to New Lodge Fields where ladies and gents from 20 countries will compete in the World Conkers Championship beginning at 10:30 a.m. and ending at 3 o’clock.  A conker (otherwise known as a buckeye in the USA) is the seed of a horse chestnut, which is fastened like a yo-yo to a string at the event.  The aim of the competition (no pun intended) is to knock out your opponent’s conker (oh, what imagery there).  You do that by wrapping the conker string around one hand and then taking the conker in the other hand and drawing it back for the strike. Releasing the conker you swing it down by the string held in the other hand and try to hit your opponent’s conker with it.  No doubt this year’s championship will be a smashing success.

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