“The sport is in crisis”: Participants in the Conkers World Championship are forced to protect themselves

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Organizers of the World Conkers Championship will have to harden their seeds this year as heatwaves and wet weather leave chestnuts “soft and mushy”.

This decision was made by the championship organizers, who said it may be the only way to keep the Games competitive.

Baking conkers was once considered cheating, but severe weather across the UK has caused the conkers to become too “squishy”.

The 2023 World Conker Championships are scheduled to take place on Sunday in Southwick, Northamptonshire, with over 200 participants.

(Dave Hodson/Conker World Championship)

All participants must follow a strict set of rules to ensure the event is as fair as possible. This also includes that the shoelaces are provided by the organizer and that the shoelaces must not be further knotted or deformed.

To win, the opponent’s conker must be smashed. If both are broken at the same time, new conkers will be drawn.

The possible decision to cure up to 3,000 conkers in the oven was met with strong backlash from fans.

(Dave Hodson/Conker World Championship)

Speaking to the Daily Star, David Glew, 77, said: “Baking conkers in the oven just wouldn’t be right. It’s crazy. Sport is in crisis.”

Tournament spokesman St John Burkett said: “This is the biggest crisis in our history. The conkers are just too soft and mushy.

“A cold snap last winter, a drought in April, extremely hot weather last month and a cool summer have led to this.

“So many guinea pigs dropped prematurely because of the storm and I think global warming could be responsible.

“People will say it’s controversial. But it looks like the nuts would otherwise be too soft for a tournament.

“They would just fall apart if they got hit. We’ve never had to resort to baking conkers. But we’ve never had such soft conkers before.

“We live in hope that everything will be fine this year.”

2022 Conker World Championship winners Fee Aylmore and Randy Topolnitsky.

(St. John Burkett/Conker World Championship)

There has not been such a crisis at the championship since 1974, when the organizers had to import hard chestnuts from Germany.

Last year, over 5,000 spectators from all over the world attended the event.

In addition to the fun people have at the event, the main goal of the championships is to support charities that help the visually impaired.

A total of £420,000 has been raised since the event began in 1965.