Page 24 - Oundle Life September 2024

BONKERS
ABOUT
CONKERS
World Championships
Image Credit: ©Gavin Major Image Credit: ©Tom Chalill
The World Conker Championships are on their ‘Heinz’ (57th) edition this year, on Sunday 13th October. Held annually on the second Sunday in October in the beautiful, quintessential English village of Southwick near Oundle, it is a wonderful, pleasant family event, with plenty to do and look at.
Hosted in the grounds of the newly refurbished Shuckburgh Arms pub, and cricket ground, new landlords Neil and Hilly Horton are enthusiastic supporters. Neil said: “That we could host the World Championships in our garden was a real factor in taking the pub on.”
Last year, the conker crown was wrestled back into English hands by Jasmine Tetley,
from Canadian Randy Topolnitsky – who was the winner in 2022. Jasmine has now won the competition a record-equalling three times. Only P Midlane won what was then the men’s finals in 1969, 1973 and 1985, so Jasmine’s achievement is all the more impressive for being
in the modern era, when men play women, and the men’s (open) champion plays the women’s champion in the Grand Final. Women are slightly ahead on the number of wins!
You may have seen the World Conker Championships featured heavily in the national press, radio and TV. Every year there is a significant interest from the world’s media, and last year the Championships featured on the front page of the Daily Star due to fears of soft conkers (!), and had whole page features in The Mail, Express and Times.
Preparation was disrupted when ITV
came to film for the day. One of the weirdest achievements was featuring over half of the front page on China Today, and another was having an Iranian documentary made about the Championships in 2021!
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www.worldconkerchampionships.com