World Conker Championships held at Shuckburgh Arms in Southwick near Oundle

Competitors conkered an annual event.

The World Conker Championships were held for the 56th time at the Shuckburgh Arms pub in Southwick near Oundle on Sunday (October 8).

The event is held annually on the second Sunday of October and attracts thousands of spectators.

St John Burkett, a member of the organising committee, said: “It is the best event we have held in years.

“The weather was perfect, there were lots of people watching and we had a lot more competitors than last year.”

More than 60 young people competed in the junior competition and there were 254 adult entries across the different categories.

Jasmine Tetley, Marc Hunter and We Came, We Saw, Jasmine Conkered were crowned the new women's, men's and team champions for 2023.

It is the third time Jasmine has taken the crown, a feat only one other person has achieved which was in the 1960s and 1970s.

Dominic Christou from Uffington was junior champion while Simon Griffiths from Stamford was the men’s runner up.

The official rules for the World Conker Championship state that you are not allowed to use your own conkers, instead having to draw one from a bag of seeds which have fallen naturally.

Each contestant takes three alternate strikes at the other player’s conker and if neither has cracked after five minutes, a knock out round commences with each player taking nine more strikes.

There were a number of stalls as well as morris dancing, a civil war reenactment and children’s rides which kept people entertained.

St John believes 3,000 people visited throughout the event, which reached maximum capacity.

Throughout the years the event has raised more than £420,000 to help the visually impaired.

While money is still being counted the event raised thousands of pounds.

A previous version of this story had the incorrect photos. We apologise for this mistake.

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