Conkers - collection and conquest

Right now in the UK, and for three or four weeks to come, there are conkers beneath the mighty chestnuts. Collecting them is so much fun. Arm yourself with a sturdy bag and a polishing cloth for each child and set sail for your local woodland/scrubland/park/garden.

Please ensure that you’re not snaffling them from an area of nature conservation. And even in ‘normal’ areas ask them to sort and select for nicely round ones, leaving the others behind for bugs, weevils and grubs.

Once you’ve got them its time to use them, or they’ll rot in that plaggie bag of yours (in a grim experience this does take a year).

A list of uses follows the jump…

The universal table display (3up)
You will need
1 big vase, (if you don’t have one knocking around you can pick up decent ones from Ikea for a couple of quid)
A dab of beeswax polish
A supply of conkers

Kiddywinks can polish the conkers, fill the vase and then choose where it can sit to be admired. And to boot, the smell of conkers and beeswax is a good(?) substitute for housework for a while.

Showdown (5up)
You will need
Conkers
String
Drill with a 6mm bit
An inventive, duplicitous mind
Many of you will have done this at school, probably before health and safety banned it. To make a ”
‘one-er’; drill the conker, thread a long piece of string (I always liked bootlaces), and then smack opponents conkers ’till destruction. The winners conker then levels up by taking the level of the other conker and adding it to is own.
The duplicitous mind comes into play when crafting your weapon of choice. You can slowly bake them until hard - acceptable - or fill them full of epoxy resin - definitely cheating if caught.
Its a good game in picking your fights and also learning to lose, as a conker carefully levelled up to near god-hood can be brought low by a mere minion. Oh… and it allows them to take responsibility for injuries inflicted on other kids knuckles; and not say “The Internet made me do it.”

tag... play for today, 3up, 5up, 8up, cheating, collecting, nature, traditional games