Conkers, conkers everywhere!
And we're not just talking the park here.
There are conkers by the front door and the back. A tub full of conkers in the kitchen. Several in my bag. More in the buggy.
And last night there was a conker in my sock, which had been put there to stop the pirates in the park from stealing it. And forgotten about :-)
My 3 year old adores them.
And she is very impressed by mummy's ability to throw sticks at trees to get the conkers down ... when squirrel won't oblige ... and to pull them open with her fingers.
The only problem is my daughter is desperate to learn how to play conkers and I am really, really rubbish at it. I blame my big sister who would only ever play conkers against the big kids on the street and would never practice with me.
So I'm giving myself a crash course ... apparently the following tips are the key to success.
If you happen to be wandering through a certain south London park over the next week and see a slightly crazed lady flicking conkers at a tree, that will be me, practising :-)
How To Win At Conkers
- Put conkers in a bucket of water & pick the ones that sink (i.e. they're denser)
- Use last year's conkers which will supposedly be harder ... (in my experience they mould or sprout)
- Make sure your conker hasn't got cracks or nicks in it
- Pick as symmetrical a conker as you can find
- Make your string hole as small as you can
- Try to make as clean a hole as possible for your string
- An electric drill may make a cleaner hole than a nail or screw driver
- Put it on a string about 25cm long but wrap the string around your hand when trying to hit the other person's conker
- You can harden your conker with these tips, but this is also known as cheating :-)
- Bake conkers in the oven on a low heat - if skin wrinkly been in too long
- Soak conkers in vinegar (after baking)
- Boil conkers in vinegar
- Rub a little hand cream into it
- Put wood protection varnish on it
- Freeze it
- Like baseball you get 3 goes to try and hit the conker
- If the other person drops their conker you're allowed to stamp on it after shouting "stampsies"
- You're not allowed to jump on a dropped conker if other person shouts "no stampsies" first
- You get an extra shot if the strings get tangled & you shout "stringsies" first
- You get an extra shot if you make the other conker spin right around
- Your conker's score is the total number of other conkers defeated by it and all the conkers you have defeated. For example, if you have defeated 10 conkers and you defeat another conker that has defeated 5 conkers, your score will be 15 not 11.
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