David Jakins as King Conker (Photo: Alan Fox)
When: 13th October 2013 from 10.30am
Where: The Shuckburgh Arms, Main Street, Southwick, near Oundle, Peterborough, Northamptonshire PE8 5BL
£: Admission for adults £2, children £1, concessions £1 and family ticket £5. Entry into the championships costs £10 for adults. Money raised goes to charity.
What is it?
The World Conker Championships will be taking place on 13th October at The Shuckburgh Arms in Southwick.
The World Conker Championships first took place in 1965 and have grown year-on-year ever since. The event is organised by Ashton Conker Club, with teams coming from all over the world to take part.
The day kicks off with competition registration from 9.30am and the opening ceremony at 10.30am. The championships will begin at 11am with the finals taking place at 2pm, followed by the presentations for the winners.
Even squirrels get involved at the championships (Photo: Ashton Conker Club)
The competitors play on white podiums in the arena and have to play through various rounds until a winner emerges and is lead to the Conker Throne and crowned with conkers. There are two contests, the main competition and the junior competition. Men and women will play in the same competition but there will be winners for the last man standing and last woman standing.
The rules of the game are fairly straight forward. All the conkers and laces are supplied by Ashton Conker Club. Laces must not be knotted further or tampered with and each player is given a new conker and lace at the start of each game. Each player takes three alternate strikes at the opponent’s conker. The game is decided once one of the conkers has been smashed.
There will be live music during the day which will carry on after the event and there will be stalls, a bouncy castle and some traditional morris dancing.
The aim of the day is to raise money for charities which help the blind and visually impaired.
More info: www.worldconkerchampionships.com