As Americans, have you heard of conker fights? They are a well known British tradition and wanted to know if they were a thing in the USA?

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No_Art_1977@reddit (OP)

String with a horse chestnut attached. Bash them in turn until they smash!

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Penguin_Life_Now@reddit

I have no clue, I have never heard of this in the US, perhaps if you were to tell us what they are, we may have them, but just call them something different.

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The 'fruit' of the horse chestnut tree is roughly spherical and woody. They are known as Conkers. Kids collect them, bore a hole through the middle and hang one on a string. You then challenge someone else to a conker fight. The fight involves kids taking turns to hold their string so the conker stays still, and the other kid tries to smash it with their conker-on-a-string. Whichever conker lasts longest before disintegrating is the winner. I'm glad to hear it's still a thing. I thought it might have died out. I'm 57 and we played conkers in the 1970s. Half of the fun was climbing trees and throwing sticks to knock the conkers down in the first place. And now I've typed the word 'conker' so many times it's starting to sound weird :-)

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edwardothegreatest@reddit

In the US that would be changed to hitting each other with the conkers.

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3Cogs@reddit

Lol

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Assessedthreatlevel@reddit

We just call the ‘fruit’ chestnuts here, they look very similar to horse chestnuts. Never heard of Conkers, Im going to learn and teach every child I meet starting today!!!

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QuercusSambucus@reddit

They're commonly known as buckeyes. Ohio is the Buckeye State.

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Assessedthreatlevel@reddit

Oh okay yes! I googled it and it said they weren’t so I wasn’t sure,I thought they were too.

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Much_Box996@reddit

Buckeyes and Horse Chestnuts are closely related trees in the Aesculus genus, but buckeyes are native to North America, while horse chestnuts are native to Europe and Asia. The most notable differences are their fruit and buds: buckeye fruits are generally smaller and smoother, while horse chestnut fruits have prickly husks and contain larger, shinier "conkers". Horse chestnut buds are also plumper and distinctly sticky, unlike the longer, drier buds of buckeye trees

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OldDude1391@reddit

Much less violent than I was expecting. When you talked of the string being attached, I thought ok they swing these at each other.

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KnucklesMacKellough@reddit

We used to throw them at each other

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tetlee@reddit

My primary school has 2 conker trees and I'm still surprised with how many shoes got stuck in them.

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3Cogs@reddit

Oh yes! I'd forgotten about trying to peel those spiky shells with our child hands.

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AskAnAmerican-ModTeam@reddit

You posted this same question yesterday.

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morosco@reddit

I have no idea what that is but it's fun to say. Conker. I'm going to start saying that even though I don't know what it is.

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Haki23@reddit

I learned this from The Hobbit movie. It turns out we have 3 horse chestnut trees not far from my house, so my wife was amused when I brought some conkers home

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dwhite21787@reddit

Yes. Am a 60+ yo, grew up with relatives in the Appalachians who had real chestnut trees and we played. But the chestnut blight killed off most American chestnut trees a while ago, so a lot of people never had the chance.

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mittenmarionette@reddit

Did the kids drill holes into them themselves, or did you take them home to dad or an uncle who had the best technique for drilling a hole and picking out a good nut? It is tragic that we lost the great chestnut forests here. The American Chesnut tree is a closer relative to Beech trees. The good news is that they are slowly coming back. Horse Chestnuts, or buckeyes, are more closely related to Maple trees. That is the tree that produces "conkers" used in the UK game, which also grow in America. The two trees have similar looking fruit but are otherwise very different. Do you know what nut you used for the game?

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dwhite21787@reddit

yes, we did our own holes, usually with a nail. I believe it American chestnut, since the ones on the farm all died out together when I was a teen. They were great roasted in winter, which also makes me think they were AC, because I've tried roasted horse chestnuts and they're different.

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Char_siu_for_you@reddit

Chestnut were wiped out in North America in the early twentieth century by chestnut blight.

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DeathandHemingway@reddit

The only 'Conker' we have over here is the one from Bad Fur Day.

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majortomandjerry@reddit

And he's from England. TIL where his name comes from

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HVAC_instructor@reddit

We used to have apple flights during family reunions at my grandparents house. Well until someone got hit in the eye. They made us play something safer after that. So we played Jarts.

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Ambitious-Sale3054@reddit

We had gum ball fights with the green prickly seed head from a sweet gum tree. We also had dirt clod fights after the dirt road had been scraped.

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3Cogs@reddit

We had apple flights too. One day we used the plastic garden table as a shield. It didn't end well.

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oldmanlikesguitars@reddit

No. Lemme ask my English wife. Ok she explained it, and no that’s not a thing here.

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OlyScott@reddit

I read a story about that when I was a kid, but no one I knew did it.

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Hyperdragoon17@reddit

The only Conner I know is the video game squirrel

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FierceNack@reddit

I grew up in the Midwest where you will find some. I remember throwing them at my stepbrother and getting in trouble.

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HashishPeddler@reddit

I don’t think those trees are as common here.

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3Cogs@reddit

I read somewhere that they are not native to the UK, I think the Romans introduced them. I can't think why, the fruit is not edible and the wood isn't used for timber. The trees look lovely though and younger me loved climbing them, so there is that.

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Braska_the_Third@reddit

They aren't edible? What about that whole "chestnuts roasting over an open fire" bit of the FavoriteThings song? Why roast them if you can't eat them?

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Kittalia@reddit

Horse chestnuts aren't edible, they look similar to true chestnuts which are edible.

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mittenmarionette@reddit

correct, they are not closely related, and the trees do not look similar. But "horse chesnut" Aesculus hippocastanum fruits and nuts look similar to Castanea dentata or Castanea sativa nuts.

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old-town-guy@reddit

The edible ones are *sweet* chestnuts, not horse chestnuts. The edible kind also come from a tree with useful timber.

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DawaLhamo@reddit

I mean, Ohio is known as the buckeye state, but... Yeah, I don't think they're in New York, though. The South, the Midwest, and California. And at least in Missouri, we don't call them conkers. And when I was growing up, we didn't play games with them. I'd pick them up for luck.

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anadem@reddit

Similar nut but different tree. Horse chestnut grows much bigger than the buckeye, and it's nuts are about half the size. They're both toxic though. Aesculus hippocastanum - Wikipedia https://share.google/9JvRP7pltVhBZQgSa

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Dgp68824402@reddit

We have chestnut hybrids in the South, also could do this with Sweet Gum burrs, but not a thing here.

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Wixenstyx@reddit

Yeah. American buckeyes are toxic, so they have never been popular for cultivation. I live in the middle of their range and I see them rarely, usually in shaded places. They tend to sunburn easily if they are planted as ornamentals, too. We called them buckeyes growing up and keeping one in your pocket was supposed to be good luck, but that's it.

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morgan_lowtech@reddit

We have a native buckeye in California, but definitely not a game built around it.

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MuchDevelopment7084@reddit

Nope, I've never heard of them.

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Intrepid_Bicycle7818@reddit

I haven’t thought about this in 40 years but yes of course we had them

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Littleboypurple@reddit

I'm confused by the game. It's just nuts on strings and you try to break them? Yeah, we absolutely do not have this here.

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PipBin@reddit

That’s the game. You and your component both had a horse chestnut (conker) that you have got your dad to drill a hole through and you have put a bootlace through the hole so the conker hangs on the string. You stand facing each other holding up the conker. One of you uses your conker to hit you opponents one. Last conker standing is the winner. The winner then takes on the next kid. Your conker becomes known by the number of others it has taken out. So if you’ve beaten 6 others it’s a sixer etc. Sadly it’s not played much anymore but it used to be really common. People would cheat by either baking the conker in the oven or pickling them in vinegar.

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PseudobrilliantGuy@reddit

I remember hearing an older Technical Difficulties bit (one of the reverse trivia podcasts, I think) where they talked about conkers. Chris joked about hollowing them out and filling them with lead, which led to a half-minute-or-so diversion about whether or not the chestnut would even survive having molten lead poured into it.

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Sphartacus@reddit

In the 90s we played a similar game with pencils, but I had never heard of this before.

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5littlemonkey@reddit

This is the most similar game we have, I'm surprised I had to scroll down so far to find a mention.

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DepartmentFun2853@reddit

We used to chuck the burr and/or the chestnuts at each other when we were younger.

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TA-175@reddit

I've only seen it done with camper trailers on Top Gear.

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hamisgoodhowareyou@reddit

We used to have crab apple fights.

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No_Art_1977@reddit (OP)

Did they involve string?

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hamisgoodhowareyou@reddit

Nope, we would just throw them at each other as teams or “sides”.

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Nightcoffee_365@reddit

Definitely not a thing. Not much tether car going on either.

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Weagle308@reddit

Only from Top Gear

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freddbare@reddit

Dirt cold war?

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QuietVisit2042@reddit

I'm a Brit now living in the USA, and it's not a thing here.

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Real-Psychology-4261@reddit

I’ve never heard of this word “conker.”

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mrkrag@reddit

Not a thing here, that is know of at least. But I do know what they are thanks to the magic of the internet.

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mobyhead1@reddit

Only in a short story I read as a child.

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seifd@reddit

I have heard of it once through British TV. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I know it involves some kind of nut from a tree.

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deleted_by_reddit@reddit

[removed]

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PGMHN@reddit

I guess the American equivalent would be like “football” played with a folded paper triangle?

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North_Artichoke_6721@reddit

I only know what it is because I read a lot of British books and it’s come up in the story and I googled it.

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_Hickory@reddit

I know about "Conker's Bad Fur Day" and that it was developed by a UK team.. that's about it

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Tom_Tildrum@reddit

There's a story about a conker fight in one of Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories, which were often found in pediatrician waiting rooms back in the '70s.

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Ok_Sentence_5767@reddit

What the hell is a conker?

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Wixenstyx@reddit

Have heard of them, yes. Never participated. I also worked for a botanical garden with a director from Ireland, though, so I learned about the game that way. As a kid we whistled with blades of grass or made plantain guns. I think horse chestnuts just aren't as common in the US?

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blipsman@reddit

Never heard the term before… we don’t have them or they have a different name

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marc4128@reddit

We don’t know what you’re taking about buddy.

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Braska_the_Third@reddit

Heard the term. No clue what it is. I think it might involve chestnuts.

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Vachic09@reddit

Never heard of it

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BigCcountyHallelujah@reddit

So I knew the name from reading some YA stuff when I was a kid… not sure what anymore, I knew it involved horse chestnuts, but still not sure how it is done…

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No_Art_1977@reddit (OP)

So basically you drill a hole through a conker (horse chestnut) and pop a string thru it. Then take turns smashing them to crack them

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BigCcountyHallelujah@reddit

Yeah, I know it involves putting a string through it, still cant visualize how you smash them into each other…. Gonna look it up on YouTube! I am trying to remember where I read it. A series of books about poor orphans living along the Thames in late Victorian times….vague memories of that. Maybe a reference here and there in Monty python….

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BW271@reddit

I have never heard of such a thing. I couldn’t even tell you what a conker is.

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notyogrannysgrandkid@reddit

I only know about them from Top Gear.

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ucbiker@reddit

Yes, I read about them in some book when I was a kid about like traditional boy stuff. Never seen one in real life.

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Cheap_Coffee@reddit

Never heard of them

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PipBin@reddit

Sadly in the U.K. conkers is dying out. It’s not played on the playground as much as it was. There are so people who are trying to keep it going. https://worldconkerchampionships.com

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No_Art_1977@reddit (OP)

We play!

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TheBimpo@reddit

I’ve never heard this term.

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El_Polio_Loco@reddit

My only exposure to it was an old top gear segment where they played it with caravans.

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perpetualmentalist@reddit

Bet my Bully 10+ round champ, will smash yours to pieces!

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3Cogs@reddit

I bet it's a steely painted brown.

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No_Art_1977@reddit (OP)

Ledge

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jhaun@reddit

Had to Google it. Think I've seen it in a movie once maybe. Seems like how kids used to play marbles or whatever. If that was ever a thing in the US it was a long time ago.

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3Cogs@reddit

I thought it would have died out over here as well. Glad to hear it hasn't. That said, I seem to remember we spent much more time and had much more fun climbing trees and throwing sticks to collect them than we did actually playing the game.

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Darryl_Lict@reddit

I think a conker is a horse chestnut and I heard something about throwing them at each other.

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3Cogs@reddit

9/10. They are horse chestnuts yes, but you don't throw them at each other (well, you do but not in the game of conkers...) What you do is tie one onto a string, as does your opponent. You then take turns holding one of them still so the other player can attempt to smash it by swinging their conker into it at speed. Only it's more of flicking motion than a swing, you have to get some speed and power into it.

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GreenBeanTM@reddit

Assuming you’re talking about the chestnut game that came up when I googled “conker fight” no we do not 😂

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3Cogs@reddit

Yes it will have been that. It's an old traditional game and I'm glad to hear it's still going.

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MoronLaoShi@reddit

My wife just explained conker fights to me, again. I have never heard of this, except for maybe the previous times my wife has tried explaining conker fights to me that I have forgotten about. They are not a thing in the US.

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megamanx4321@reddit

I've only heard of them from British YouTubers.

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eyetracker@reddit

We have a similar plant, though the primary use is to chuck at your sibling's head. Rumor has it that a horrible ghoul named Brutus inhabits Colombus Ohio, captures children, and makes them capitalize THE.

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