The men’s champion of the World Conker Championships is being investigated after a steel chestnut was found in his pocket.
According to The Telegraph, David Jakins, known as “King Conker,” came under suspicion after a series of matches in which he destroyed his opponent’s conker with a single hit. Jakins, 82, was searched after the event and was found to have a metal replica of a conker on his person.
“I was found with the steel conker in my pocket, but I only carry [it] around with me for humor value and I did not use it during the event,” Jakins, who is also a judge at the event, told The Telegraph. “Yes, I did help prepare the conkers before the tournament. But this isn’t cheating or a fix, and I didn’t mark the strings. I just tried to hit hard, and somehow, I finally won.”
Conker, or conkers, is a game in which two competitors take turns using a horse chestnut attached to a string — known as a “conker” — to attack their opponent’s conker. Points are scored for breaking the opponent’s conker without damaging one’s own conker, making the inherent advantage in a metal substitute obvious.
“My conker disintegrated in one hit, and that just doesn’t happen,” Alastair Johnson-Ferguson, 23, who lost to Jakins in the final, told The Telegraph. “Now it turns out King Conker had a dummy steel conker, so he could have swapped his real conker for that one. Or he could have marked the conker strings to pick out a harder nut. I’m suspicious of foul play and have expressed my surprise to organizers.”