This section is in advanced English and is only intended to be a guide, not to
be taken too seriously!
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The game of conkers has been a popular pastime of British schoolchildren for decades. The rules are simple. Each player is given a conker attached to a piece of string and takes turns in trying to break their opponent's nut using a swinging motion.
It is not without controversy though: Whilst there's no law or government policy banning children from playing conkers, some individual schools have decided to ban conkers on health & safety grounds, worried about injuries from flying chestnut shards or from the strings used in the game.
That said, there is a world tournament, which came about after a group of local friends had to cancel their annual fishing trip one year.
"They sat in a bar wondering what to do," said Hadman. "Crying into their beer they looked out and saw conkers falling on the village green. So they went out and had a game."
A new passion was born and the green has since hosted 38 world tournaments.
Since 1965, the championships have also raised close to a 250,000 pounds (415,000 dollars) for the blind. "Not bad for seeing people cracking a few nuts," joked Hadman.
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