Conker

The new King and Queen Conker have been crowned after a closely-fought contest at the World Conker Championships.

Hundreds of competitors went into battle in Northamptonshire for the event’s 60th year – which attracted increased attention after last year’s cheating scandal, prompting “airport-style” security checks.

Men’s winner Matt Cross, from Bourne, Lincolnshire, was crowned the overall World Conker Champion after beating women’s victor Mags Blake, of Corby, in the ultimate showdown.

“I am absolutely speechless,” said Mr Cross, 37, a newcomer to the competition, which sees players and champions return year after year.

Some 256 people from nine different countries, including Japan, entered this year’s competition, held in the village of Southwick, near Oundle.

“I’ve turned up expecting to go out in the first or second round, but every round I gave it another go, and it just snowballed,” Mr Cross added.

Asked about his tactics, he said it was “just force and accuracy”.

“A lot of it is a game of chance, and your opponent is in the same boat as you,” Mr Cross said.

The competition places rapidly filled for the 2025 competition – which organisers put down to the publicity surrounding last year’s King Conker, who was accused of cheating with a steel nut.

David Jakins, 84, was eventually cleared and returned to Southwick on Sunday to defend his crown – only to be knocked out a by a woman dressed as a bee in the first round.

Organiser St John Burkett said of this year’s arrangements: “We had an airport-style scanner which competitors had to pass through, including a tray for them to empty their pockets in.

“We also had a hand-held scanner, and sirens and flashing lights should anything untoward be detected by the scanner.

“And, in keeping with the event, the ringmaster had a big magnet on a stick.”

He added that a man was disqualified from Sunday’s event after he had set off an alarm while attempting to bring in his own conker, which is against competition rules.

The event, which took place at the Shuckburgh Arms, sees participants go head-to-head using conkers threaded onto a string to try and smash their opponent’s nut.

Each player takes three alternate strikes at the opponent’s conker.

Among the entrants were sports broadcaster Mark Pougatch, who missed out on a place in the quarter finals “by a thread”, losing to Finn Vergalen.

There had been fears the event would be cancelled for only the third time in its history due to the hot, dry summer, which caused conkers to fall from trees early.

A nationwide hunt began, with suitably large nuts eventually being donated by the royal estate at Windsor Castle as well as from locations across the country, Italy and France.