Conkers by Dave Page

The name comes from the nineteenth-century dialectal word conker meaning snail-shell (related to French conque meaning a conch), as the game was originally played by children using snail shells or sometimes hazelnuts. Conkers are also known regionally as "obblyonkers", "cheggies" or "cheesers", but the first recorded game of Conkers using horse chestnuts was on the Isle of Wight in 1848.
In 1965 the World Conker Championships were set up in Ashton (near Oundle) Northamptonshire, and still take place on the second Sunday of October every year. In 2004, an audience of 5,000 turned up to watch more than 500 competitors from all over the world slug it out.
In 2000 a survey of British schools showed that many were not allowing children to play Conkers as head teachers were afraid of the legal consequences if children were injured while playing the game. In 2004 a headmaster was reported to be giving kids goggles to play the game. A slightly older teenager can be seen wearing them in the picture below.

To stand a good chance of winning, it is desirable to have as hard a conker as possible. The best way to achieve this is to leave your conker in a drawer for a year and are called "Laggies" in many areas. If you lack time, a similar effect can be gained by briefly baking it in an oven...
It should be pointed out, however, that some would consider any artificial hardening of a conker to be cheating. At the British Junior Conkers Championships on the Isle of Wight in October 2005, contestants were banned from bringing their own conkers due to fears that they might harden them.
Some rules and names
If a player just slices the opponent's conker (i.e. does not get a clean hit, often because wind causes the opponent's conker to sway), then both players quickly shout "tips" and the one who in the opinion of the crowd shouted it first, gets to take the next shot.
A further variation adds that if a player should let go of the string when the hit occurs, which often results in the conker traveling quite some distance, whosoever gets to it first wins it, though don’t try this if it lands in the river as it has on past occasions Mick and Eddie take note.
Another variation states that if a conker should come off the string, but is otherwise undamaged, the 'attacking' player may shout "stampsies" and attempt to stamp on the 'defending' player's conker before they are able to retrieve it.
In some areas, a rule is played whereby if a player takes his shot and the two laces become tangled, the first player who shouts "clinks", "strings" or "jinks", depending on the region, gets to take shots.
May the the horse chestnut tree flourish and the game continue for the children and the recycled teenagers in the future.