Heads or Tails Tuesday

Today's Heads or Tails gives us the choice of Heads only. However, it's still a very flexible option, as participants are being asked to write about anything that begins with the letter C. Most people who know me, are probably expecting me to write about cats, chocolate or cacti, three of my favorite things, which coincidentally start with the letter C. But that's just too predictable. Instead, I shall be talking about the traditional British game of conkers, beloved by generations of school children.

So what is a conker? Well, it's the rounded, hard, inedible (to humans, anyway) seed of the horse chestnut tree, not to be confused with the edible sweet chestnut. It grows on a very large tree, which can have white, pink or red flowers. Some varieties are cultivated, others are wild.

The hard, brown seed, or conker, is protected during development, by a prickly green casing, which stops it being consumed by birds, squirrels, bugs and other hungry creatures.

When the conker is ripe and hard, the prickly green casing splits open, allowing the seed to fall out and hopefully, grow into a new tree.

However, when these seeds hit the ground, usually in September and October, many British children gather them up. It's time for the annual round of playground conker contests. Traditionally, when someone finds their first conker of the season, they're supposed to say: "Oddly oddly onker my first conker". This is meant to ensure good luck, not just in the ensuing conker contests, but also through the autumn season generally. However, this little-known part of the tradition, is rarely, if ever, practised by children nowadays.

After selecting a hard, symmetrical conker, free of cracks, the next step is to drill a hole through its centre.

A length of string is then threaded through the hole, and a large knot tied in the string, to prevent the conker falling off the end.

In a game of conkers, players take turns at hitting each other's conkers. I can remember, from my own childhood, that a conker strike misdirected at a finger can be exceedingly painful. Basically, one player leaves their conker dangle from their hand, whilst the other player wraps much of the string around their hand. The striker then draws back their conker strikes their opponent's. If a player misses their opponent's conker, they get another two strikes. Should the strings tangle, the first player to call "strings" will get an extra turn. If a player, in hitting the opponent' s conker, causes it to whirl around in a circle, this is known as ‘round the world’. The striker scores another turn for doing this. If one of the players drops their conker, or has it knocked out of their hand, their opponent may yell "stamps" and jump on the fallen conker. But if the owner of the fallen conker manages to shout "no stamps'" first, then the opponent cannot jump on the conker. A conker match ends when one of the conkers is destroyed.

Sadly, this traditional game, which I played frequently during my not so distant childhood, is declining. This may, in part, be due to the over-protective attitude of many schools, in today's highly litigious society. Although injuries caused by conkers are rare, a large number of schools have banned conker games from school premises, in case a child is hurt, and the school gets sued. But properly supervised, a conker game needn't be a cause for concern.

Anyway, that's my Heads or Tails for today. Happy Tuesday!

Please do not credit me with any of the above images. They were obtained from Flickr, under a Creative Commons licence. Click each image to discover the identity of the photographer.