What is a Game of Conkers?

The game of conkers is ages old. Using the dark brown horse chestnuts, not to be confused with the smaller chestnut, you can have hours of fun trying to smash apart your opponent’s conker.

The game of conkers, also called conker fighting, involves trying to smash your opponent’s conker which is suspended at the end of a piece of string.  The winner is usually the person whose conker is stronger and harder.

How to remove spiky conkers shells

The first thing you will need to play conkers is a conker! Conkers are encased in a hard green shell that has spikes on the outside. When the horse chestnut ripens and falls from the horse chestnut tree, the outer casing often breaks open when it hits the ground. You can then prise the conker shell off with your fingers.

If the conker shell hasn’t come off and you are finding it hard to open, then there is a trick to opening them without hurting your fingers on the spikes. All you have to do is put the conker on the ground and gently roll it with your foot. By applying the right amount of pressure, the shell breaks open as you roll it.

Getting your conkers ready for conker fights

To play conkers, you will need to attach your conker to a piece of string or shoe lace. Make a small hole all the way through your conker with a meat skewer, bradawl or drill. The smaller the hole is, the stronger your conker will be as a bigger hole weakens conkers too much and makes them prone to being broken when hit. The hole does need to be big enough to fit your piece of string through though. If you choose a thin round shoe lace or piece of string, this will be best for your conkers. The string should be between 30cm and 50cm long.

How to play conkers

Conker fighting is great fun between two players. As long as you play fair, you will have a great time. Hopefully your opponent won’t hit your knuckles with their conker either!

The aim of conker fights

The general idea is that one of the conker players holds his conker still in the air by dangling it on the string. The other conker player then has to swing his conker overarm whilst still holding the end of the string so that the conker hits the opponent’s conker. The aim is to smash your opponent’s conker off the string.

Who goes first in conkers?

You usually toss a coin to see who decides to go first. The winner of the toss can choose to hit or receive first.

Conkers Game play

Conkers players take it in turn to try to hit the other conker. There are several outcomes of a swing. You can hit the conker and smash it off the string. You can miss the conker. You can miss the conker and get the strings tangled. You can hit the conker with no damage. You can hit the conker and break your own conker. Both conkers could get damaged.

Winning conkers

To win a game of conkers, you have to smash your opponent’s conker completely off the string whilst keeping your conker on the string. A partial break does not count. Also, if you knock your opponent’s conker off the string without breaking it, then they are allowed to put it back on the string.

Scoring and rating a conker

Scoring is done by counting how many conkers your conker has broken. The winning conker also gains the rating of the losing conker. So if you both have “none-ers” because they have won none, then the winning conker becomes a “one-er.” If you have a conker that has beaten four others, and then beats a two-er, then it also takes on the score of the losing conker and becomes a six-er.

How to Make Conkers Stronger and Harder

Everyone who has played conkers will know that you will most likely win if your conker is stronger than the other conker. Technically, if you make the conker harder, it also makes it more brittle. What you have to do is to make your conker strong. You also have to try to make your method undetectable, so this rules out coating it in an epoxy resin!

Pickling conkers in vinegar

Pickling conkers in vinegar is said to make them rock hard. This can however cause the inside to slowly rot.

Baking conkers

Baking conkers in the oven at a very low heat is one of the best ways to make conkers stronger. You need to leave it in the oven long enough to make it strong without making the outside wrinkly.

Using old conkers

The best way to get a winning conker that is unbeatable is to use conkers saved from last year. So, start collecting next years winning conkers now!

Varnishing conkers

Applying clear varnish to conkers can give them a strong hard shell, but this can be detectable.

Hand cream on outside of conkers

One method that does seem to make conkers stronger is to coat the outside of your conker with hand cream. This makes the outside more resistance to impact. I would bake the conker in the oven first to make the inside tougher, and then coat the outside of the conker with hand cream to make the conker shell more flexible to the impacts.

Conkers banned in schools

Apparently, conker fights are dangerous. The powers that be have decided for you that you should not play conkers in case you get hurt. OK, so there are risks of hitting your opponent in the face, or smashing your conker into their hand, but they will need to have quick reactions to avoid your bad aim. If you can’t play at school, you can always play at home.

Conker’s Bad Fur Day

There is also a popular computer game called conkers. The game stars Conker the Squirrel and involves a number of levels to complete. I would rather be outside trying to smash my friend’s horse chestnut to bits than be indoors playing on my own on a computer.

More information about Conkers

• How to play Conkers
• Fun Things to do in Autumn

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The problem of the disappearing dog in the dark

I am not afraid of the dark, but the unexpected tree branch in the face or hole in the grass can be somewhat annoying. You get to hear some colourful language from me when that happens. The problem I find about the dark is having to take the dog for a walk.

We like to give our dog the freedom to explore, sniff, and run about in a safe environment where he cannot get to a road. He isn’t one for having any road sense. There are some great country parks and country walks where I live, but the woods tend not to have street lights for some reason. Something to do with it being the country and the cost of lighting up nature at night isn’t the done thing. The main thing with the countryside nearby is that it is away from roads.

Once you let your dog go free at night, they tend to magically disappear in the dark. I have learned to discern the slightly different grey speckled pattern that moves in the dark and listen for the jangling of his collar, but it is far better to be able to tell where the little blighter is without having to call him all the time or shine my LED Lenser P7 pocket torch that will pick him out at up to 200m.

Flashing LED dog tags for dog collars

I found that the high power pocket torch is great at finding him, but then wrecks your night vision for a while. To be kinder to my eyes, I bought a little flashing LED dog tag that clips onto the dog collar. These look really cool when they light up at night in the dark. It flashes red white and blue. However, the battery life was poor. The three button batteries it needed would last only three nights. Not good. Time to look for something else.

Reflective dog collars

Reflective dog collars are only good for seeing your dog when you shine a light directly onto it. If your dog is facing you or running away from you, your torch will not shine on the reflective dog collar. So, reflective dog collars were out for walking him at night. They are useful when walking him on the lead near roads though. Cars can easily see you and your dog when you are crossing the road.

Light Up Flashing Dog Collars

The best collar for a dog to wear at night is one that is reflective and also lights up. I found the best collar that everyone recommends is the Fun Pets Super Bright USB Rechargeable Collar that has a long strip that runs the length of the dog collar. Underneath the strip there is a reflective strip that reflects torches and car headlamps in the dark. When you turn the light up dog collar on, it can be set to shine a steady bright blue, flash slowly, or flash quickly. You can see the collar from hundreds of metres away in the dark. I can track my dog when he is haring around the park at night chasing the scent of foxes.

This Led dog collar works by shining the blue light down the length of the strip that runs the length of the flashing dog collar. It used to have one big button battery that lasts for months. I put in a new battery each Autumn, and it lasts all the way through Winter as well. These are now available as USB rechargeable light up dog collars.

Other Glow in the Dark Dog Accessories

You can no longer get the button battery Firefly dog collar, but it has been upgraded and replaced with the Super Bright Flashing dog collar from Amazon in various colours for only £10. The construction is the same as mine, which has lasted for over six years now and is still used every night. The collar can be used to attach the dog lead to, but because I am constantly taking the collar off after use, I wouldn’t trust the clip if my dog decided to pull on the lead. So, I put the collar on as well as his normal one.

You will be for ever grateful the moment you put this light up dog collar onto your dog. No more losing sit of your dog when you let them off the leash in the dark. I can’t guarantee that it will improve recall, but at least you will be able to see where they are running off to!

A lot of my nocturnal dog walking friends also get the Nite Ize Meteorlight LED Pet Ball in Red for their dogs. This glow in the dark ball for dogs comes in three sizes and means no more searching around in the dark for lost tennis balls.

If you want to find some great ways to have fun outdoors with your dog, read how to make walking your dog extra fun for you.

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LED torches are fantastic inventions. The technology is so good now that you can buy a high powered LED torch that fits into your pocket or handbag and has the power to shine so bright that it looks like daylight. At 200 lumens, the LED Lenser P7 and LED Lenser T7 from Amazon.co.uk are some of the best high power pocket torches that you can buy.
As we move into Autumn and Winter, coming home in the dark can be a real bind. I am not particularly fussed about walking my dog across woods and fields in the dark, but there are times when you need a little bit more light on the situation. Catching the unexpected tree branch or bramble around the face is something best avoided.

Making a Pocket Sized LED Torch

As I am always out and about walking the dog in all weathers, I began to get a bit fed up of not being able to see where I was going due to either a crap beam on a pocket torch, or carrying a 6 D cell Maglite that is huge. You can’t see where you are going. Also, you can’t see where your dog has gone sniffing. You can’t see who may be up ahead. It is very useful to have that peace of mind of having the best LED torch small enough to fit into a pocket or bag that actually provides enough light to see at a distance of over 100m.

I spend quite a bit of time looking at pocket torches before finding the best one for me. A lot of LED torches use button batteries. The torches are great, but replacing the batteries is expensive. I wanted a small torch with a powerful adjustable beam (spotlight to floodlight) that was water resistant, durable and used AAA batteries.

After looking around at pocket torches for quite a while, I bought myself a LED Lenser P7. The P7 LED torch shines a good 200m on new batteries. The limitation tends to be moisture in the air causing the beam to reflect.

Unlike some other torches such as Maglites, the LED Lenser has a much more intense beam. The LED Lenser P7 and T7 have a handy quick focussing head. All you have to do is slide the LED torch head up and it goes from floodlight to spotlight. It turns on using a push button on the end of the LED torch. Once for high beam, again for low beam, and again to turn the LED torch off.

High Powered LED Torch Battery Life

Another great feature is that it gives you up to 130 hours of light from 4 AAA batteries that come with the torch. Some other torches need button batteries. You will find that these type of high powered LED torches soon use up the batteries. Having a LED torch that uses AAA batteries is very convenient when you need to replace the batteries. Also, having a LED torch that has 4 AAA batteries gives you plenty of hours of light. The P7 LED Lenser torch comes with a pouch that you can use to clip onto a bag or go on your belt. It also has a wrist strap.

A Small High Powered LED Torch for Walking the Dog

I wouldn’t be without my P7 LED torch. Walking the dog at night is much easier. Even though my dog has a high visibility flashing dog collar, you often lose track of him at a distance in the dark. I can see him quite easily with the LED Lenser P7, and it is also very useful to make sure I don’t fall over in the dark, especially when you want to see what you are walking in and if you need to clean up after your dog.

Pocket Torch Also Fits on Your Bike

You can see exactly where it has gone from a long way away. I also bought the LED Lenser bike mount. This means that I can use the LED lenser torch on my mountain bike at night. It is good enough that you can cycle off road in the dark and see far enough ahead to avoid dangerous obstacles and holes. I haven’t used any of my Maglites since.

Another great LED torch is the Surefire. These LED torches are made with just as good quality but are more expensive.

Which LED torch to buy?

I am still using my LED Lenser P7 four years on as the only torch I use. Dog walking, camping, working at night, it is the torch to have. I also use it on my mountain bike for cycling off road in the dark. In the US, you can buy LED Lenser pocket torch from Amazon.com.

The Mini 300 Lumen Q5 Cree pocket torch

You can now get an even smaller high powered LED torch to fit in your pocket. The Mini 300 Lumen CREE LED Torch from Amazon is waterproof, and uses only one AA battery. It is a best seller on Amazon, and has 5 star reviews from nearly 500 people. If you read some of the reviews though, using a 1.5v AA battery will last only two hours. Using the correct 3.7v battery which costs more than the torch itself will be much brighter and last longer. A great stocking filler, but I would rather have a pocket torch that lasted for a long time.

Cheap High Power LED Pocket Torch for under £10

If the LED Lenser is a bit too pricy for you, I have also bought the [amazon_link asins=’B00RCUZ2CC’ template=’AOProductLink’ store=’activoutdo-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’c6b0f1d4-6e30-11e7-91e4-7594b5b30e24′] for only [amazon_link asins=’B00RCUZ2CC’ template=’PriceLink’ store=’activoutdo-21′ marketplace=’UK’ link_id=’d3d533dc-6e30-11e7-8087-433e73648fc9′] from Amazon. The quality is great, it only takes three AAA batteries, and the 2000 Lumen beam is brilliant. It has an adjustable focus just like the LED Lenser. The only difference is that I would say that with a lot of rough use, the LED Lenser would definitely last longer. I have bought the Ever Cree LED Torch as a gift for friends, and they always keep it in their handbags or coat pocket. Ideal for those moments in the cinema or concert when you drop stuff on the floor in the dark and can’t find it.

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