Conkers

We have just returned from London, forgive my absence, and I have an exciting new game that is a part of Will's childhood and hopefully will catch on here.

Conkers.

Or, how to break your own knuckles.

The game requires conker seeds, what we would call horse chestnut seeds. The seeds really look like large buckeyes:



You drill a hole through the conker, force a bit of string through the hole, and now you have a conker on a string. The idea is that you dangle your stringed conker to be hit by another person's stringed conker. You take turns trying to break off the opponent's conker by hitting it with your conker. After each go, you examine your conker and access the damages, if there is any.

Should you be successful in smashing the other person's conker off the string, your conker becomes a "one-ey". If you smash yet another conker with the winning conker, you now have a "two-ey." Now, should someone else smash your conker, they get to claim your previous wins as well as their own, and so they become a "three-ey." Got that?

But in reality, it is all about the pain you inflict-- mainly on yourself on your knuckles, arms, thighs, etc. Here is a prime example: Will and Edward, Will's father, playing conkers:



So, who is up for a game of Conkers? We brought some back...