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A comment on Cheating alleged after men's world conker champion found with steel chestnut. Parent comment

Re:Cheating alleged after men's world conker champion found ... by tomxor on Monday October 14, 2024 @11:54PM (#41844790)
Yes. Although the last time I played or heard anyone discuss conkers as a game was in the 1990s at school. My dad seemed to find the concept of fake conkers amusing enough to take it upon himself to craft me a resin filled one, although it didn't fool any kids.

In more recent years a bus driver complained to me conkers are not legal tender as I placed some down while in search of change. Around this time of year you will find most people have their pockets filled with conkers. </dev/random>

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Re:Cheating alleged after men's world conker champion found ... by tankenmate on Tuesday October 15, 2024 @02:32AM (#41845568)
As well as the old myth that putting a conker in the corner of a room will ward off spiders building a web there. The veracity of which, attest to I cannot.
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Re:Cheating alleged after men's world conker champion found ... by fer on Tuesday October 15, 2024 @02:36AM (#41845611)
> Although the last time I played or heard anyone discuss conkers as a game was in the 1990s at school.

Same, but with peonzas/trompos[0]. It's interesting since it's also about breaking the other player's item thanks to the inertia provided by a string.

In short, they're hardcore spinning tops: large, generally with a metal tip, spun much faster due to the string winding, and as mentioned, the objective is to crack the other player's.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trompo

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Re:Cheating alleged after men's world conker champion found ... by beAbU on Tuesday October 15, 2024 @03:10AM (#41845763)
I did not know it was possible to break those things to be honest. We made a circle with a string or something, and then let the two spinning tops (as we called them) duke it out, and the loser is the one knocked out of the ring.

Ours were made from a very tough plastic, either nylon or HDPE.

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