playing conkers

Playing conkers

Conkers

Every autumn my girls collect conkers like mad! They are everywhere in their pockets, backpacks, their wooden house in the garden…I usually just end up throwing them out as soon as I find them but this time around daddy thought it will be good to teach our girls to play conkers.

Playing conkers

My little one took a special interest in the conkers and you can of course see that from the pictures below…


23195161241_38c0fee9e6_z 23277780975_308c9d1f54_z

22012329119_94a3d6746c_z

Playing conkers

  • Pick the best conkers that you have – they need to be uncracked and firm.
  • Make a hole through the middle of your conkers – this needs to be completed by an adult – “daddy”
  • Thread a strong piece of string, long enough for your child age – 20 – 20 cm long, through the hole and tie a knot at one end so it doesn’t pull through

playing conkers

 

  • Each player should hold one conker hanging on it’s string and then take turns on hitting their opponent conker( but because by girls are quite little and they were hitting each other with them daddy thought it would be better to tie the string of one of the conkers to something – in this instance the handle of a bike. Like that my girls took turns on hitting that conker so the accidents were less.)

Playing conkers

  • In normal situations, if you are the first to hold the conker to be hit then you will need to leave it to hang down the string which is wrapped round your hand
  • The conker need to be held at the height your opponent chooses and it needs to hold perfectly still.
  • The striker needs to wrap his conker string round his hand – he then takes his conker in the other hand and draws it back for the strike.(you can see why this game is quite dangerous)
  • When the striker releases the conker he swings it down by the string held in the other hand and tries to hit his opponents conker with it.
  • If the player missed hitting his opponent conker than they are allowed up to two other goes.
  • If the strings tangle, the first player to call “strings” gets an extra shot.
  • If a player hits his/her opponents conker in such a way that it completes a whole circle after being hit – known as ‘round the world’ – the player gets another go.
  • If a player drops his conker, or it is knocked out of his hand the other player can shout ‘stamps’ and jump on it; but should its owner first cry ‘no stamps’ then the conker, hopefully, remains intact.
  • The game goes on in turns until one or other of the two conkers is completely destroyed.

As you can imagine my girls are just a tiny bit too young to play this game properly but that doesn’t mean that they didn’t have fun! They enjoyed playing in the garden with their daddy and they both believe that in the years to come they will become better at it.

Playing Conkers

 

 

Like this Article? Subscribe to Our Feed!

6 Comments

  • Coombe Mill - Fiona

    This really takes me back to my childhood at just a few years old er than your girls, I remember playing them in the school playground and baking them in the oven to make them harder to crack! A great game for the girls to learn, well done Daddy on the bike idea, I’m sure we had them banned at school at some point each year, probably due to injury! I bet by just next year the girls will have it sussed. Lovely to see you back on Country Kids, thank you so much for linking up.

  • Louise Lloyd

    Oh this so takes me back to my childhood! Conkers was so well loved! B Lloyd is just like your beautiful two, she collects them like mad and I find them everywhere. Usually hidden in pockets so I cannot throw them out!

    The oddest thing since we moved though is there are no trees with conkers….the american’s had no idea what we were talking about either!

  • Jennifer

    I’ve never really known the proper rules to conkers, so thank you for sharing! What a good idea to hang the conker from something to practise hitting it. I never saw any conkers this year so I need to look harder next year, my children would love to give playing conkers a go!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.