Conker Memories

FatCat

Well-known member
The Mrs has never played so I’m going to teach her later( I know rock and roll in my house)
Anyway does anybody remember the rules or have any memories they would like to share?

I remember there was various remedies involving vinegar and baking in order to make them harder.
 
Is the thread title a misspelling as I've never heard it called that?
Anyway, I'd say that conker doping should be avoided and you should play a purist game and let nature decide which conker conquers so to speak.
 
I remember that if yours fell on the floor all parties, avid spectators included would jump on it and stamp on it. I think they shouted ‘scats’ or something like that.
 
I used to test mine in water first to check their strength. Any that floated were binned as they had soft inners. I used to bake them lightly and spray with a firm hold hairspray as it gave an outer coating to the shell.
The comment about the knuckles was so true. If anyone believed they were losing, they just aimed for the knuckles instead. Kids can be cruel ;)
 
Where I am the conkers are still all in the tree and falling naturally. My memories of Boro are that the trees would be bare by now with loads of sticks thrown up for collecting.

Has conker hunting died a death everywhere? Are the Boro trees now rich with massive conkers?
 
When I was a kid many, many moons ago I used to love the start of Autumn so I could go climbing trees to get conkers. Graveyards used to always be a good source of trees too and so we'd spend hours shaking branches and trying to get them to fall so we could build up a canny collection for the school yard games.

There were allsorts of 'methods' to try and harden your conkers. Baking them in the oven and covering them with clear varnish were the two main ones, though others used to swear by soaking them in vinegar for a couple of days etc.

Most kids these days haven't a clue about conkers, schools used to cite health and safety as a means of spoiling the enjoyment. However, my kids have always gone to get conkers and every year we go get some and its great to spend a couple of hours out in the fresh air looking under piles of leaves to see if we can find any. No climbing of trees these days though, I fear no branch would be strong enough to hold me on the off chance I could shin my way further than 6 inches up the tree :D
 
Where I am the conkers are still all in the tree and falling naturally. My memories of Boro are that the trees would be bare by now with loads of sticks thrown up for collecting.

Has conker hunting died a death everywhere? Are the Boro trees now rich with massive conkers?
“Conker Hunting”, yes I remember that so funny as kids, not hunting wild animals but conkers , true bravery!
 
When I was a kid many, many moons ago I used to love the start of Autumn so I could go climbing trees to get conkers. Graveyards used to always be a good source of trees too and so we'd spend hours shaking branches and trying to get them to fall so we could build up a canny collection for the school yard games.

There were allsorts of 'methods' to try and harden your conkers. Baking them in the oven and covering them with clear varnish were the two main ones, though others used to swear by soaking them in vinegar for a couple of days etc.

Most kids these days haven't a clue about conkers, schools used to cite health and safety as a means of spoiling the enjoyment. However, my kids have always gone to get conkers and every year we go get some and its great to spend a couple of hours out in the fresh air looking under piles of leaves to see if we can find any. No climbing of trees these days though, I fear no branch would be strong enough to hold me on the off chance I could shin my way further than 6 inches up the tree :D
Yes I’m definitely going to insist the Mrs wears a pair of safety goggles, the last thing we need now is a trip to a and e!
 
When I first saw the thread title I thought it was about an old mate who was a cracking goalkeeper and also went to Wigan Casino with us in the '70's (lads of a certain age / era might know who I mean!)
 
I take my grandsons over Acklam Hall and the Outwood school and, over the last few years, i cant believe the amount of conkers on trees and on the ground
Kids don't bother anymore, health and safety at schools and other electronic past times have stoppef outdoor pursuits of my youth.
Saying that, my grandsons really enjoyed conker hunting.
 
Soak in vinegar and put them in the oven, to try and make them harder or something like that.......also people making up the number of wins the Conker had without any real verification.
 
I remember the vinegar theory, surely the acidity just breaks down the cooker?

what you need is a grandad who finds a stone, drills a hole in the middle and paints it for you. Was gutted when his big reveal of the “conked” before giving me it was him using it smash my 57’er into a million pieces
 
I remember trying vinegar, totally useless it just went all soft and soggy

We used to cover ours in Araldite and dry them out in the airing cupboard (y)
 
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