The 2024 edition of a quintessential English competition now includes a controversy, after the men’s winner of the World Conker Championships — a two-person game with the object of crushing a conker, or horse chestnut — was accused of using a metal chestnut to secure a long-elusive title.
Sunday’s grand final capped an extraordinary day at the event hosted by the Shuckburgh Arms, a country pub in the village of Southwick in Northamptonshire, central England.
“This year we had 256 competitors and around 2,000 visitors enjoying the charitable event raising funds for the visually impaired,” Neil Horton, landlord of the nearly 385-year-old pub, told NPR.
What is conkers?
“Conkers is an ancient and traditional Autumn sport in Great Britain; played using the large (1-2”) seeds of horse chestnut trees, known as a Conker,” Horton told NPR via email.
“The game is played by two players, each with a conker threaded onto a length of string or leather thong,” he said, who take turns striking each other's conker until one breaks.
Large and heavy nuts are preferred. A few years ago, a regional drought left organizers scrambling to find 3,000 conkers suitable for competition. The annual fall championship often inspires competitors and spectators to dress up in costumes, from Arthurian characters to Yoda.
American woman conquers the conkers world
The 2024 overall world title was won by Kelci Banschbach, 34, who is originally from Indianapolis. Banschbach acknowledges taking an unlikely path to conkers fame: She only started playing the game after moving to England for work two years ago. Now she’s made history as the first American conkers champion.
“I’ve never won anything like this before, and am amazed I have done this,” she said in a press release announcing the results. “I’ve not really played conkers before, and this is just a surprise!”
As a prize, she earned "a trophy, a tea towel and a coaster," the BBC reports.
Banschbach defeated David Jakins, who won the men’s tournament for the first time after more than 4 decades of attempts.
“This means so much to me,” Jakins said. “I’m 82, and my legs aren’t what they were, so to stand up there and become Men’s World Champion is wonderful.”
Conkerversy erupts
Jakins is well-known at the championships, where he’s known as “King Conker.” In a tradition dating to the championships’ start in the 1960s, the person with that title sits on a throne and wears a black bowler and clothes festooned with conkers.
As he served in that official capacity, Jakins also competed in the championship — an overlap that helped to fuel a cheating allegation.
Alastair Johnson-Ferguson, who lost to Jakins in the final, told The Daily Telegraph that he raised concerns to organizers after his conker “disintegrated in one hit, and that just doesn’t happen.”
After winning his title, Jakins was found to have a metal conker in his pocket. But he denied using it to cheat, saying he only carried it as a humorous prop.
"He has what I would term a comedy-value metal Conker he uses for display and showing the kids," Horton, the pub's landlord, said. "We are confident this was not used, but the enquiry is running."
Others said it was suspicious that Jakins, who helps ensure the tournament’s conkers are properly prepared, had smashed several opponents’ nuts in a single hit. Some wondered if Jakins might have somehow marked the strings attached to the hardest conkers — another allegation he denies.
Organizers are reviewing the evidence
It would be unprecedented for a competitor to use a metal conker in the tournament.
"It has never happened before," Horton said.
World Conker Championships spokesperson St. John Burkett told Sky News that while the matter is being investigated, anyone hoping to cheat would have to fool four judges watching the competitors as they face off. The players also draw their conkers at random from a bag, before each round.
"The judges stand incredibly close and measure the regulation 8” lace length," Horton said. "So any foul play would have been weeded out immediately."
That doesn’t sway skeptics such as spectator David Glew, 78 — who delivered what is likely the quote of the day.
“The whole thing is nuts,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “It stinks, and needs to be properly investigated to save our game from scandal.”
The investigation should be concluded by the end of this week, Horton said, noting that organizers want to inspect conkers that Jakins gave away as souvenirs after using them. He also said Jakins is staunchly keen on fair play, adding, "Any other way just isn’t cricket!"
If you’d like to try to play conkers at home, this charming video describes the threading process (tip: it helps to use fresh conkers that haven’t completely dried out).
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