History
The championships began in 1965 after a group of people in Ashton held a conker contest because the weather was too bad to go fishing . At first the event was modest in size but in the last twelve years, rising numbers of participants and more interest from abroad have brought it into the headlines. Money made from the competition goes to charity; since 1965 over £400,000 has been raised .
On Thursday October 6, 2011. after 46 years of championships, it was with deep sadness that Ashton Conker Club the organisers of the World Conker Championships in Ashton were forced to cancel the event over fears forecasted high winds could ruin the show and leave a hefty bill. The Club say the risk of high tents and marquees coming down in the wind on participants and spectators at the exposed venue was too great a risk to take. .
Read more about this topic: World Conker Championships
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“When we of the so-called better classes are scared as men were never scared in history at material ugliness and hardship; when we put off marriage until our house can be artistic, and quake at the thought of having a child without a bank-account and doomed to manual labor, it is time for thinking men to protest against so unmanly and irreligious a state of opinion.”
—William James (18421910)
“The whole history of civilisation is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.”
—Walter Bagehot (18261877)
“There is a history in all mens lives,
Figuring the natures of the times deceased,
The which observed, a man may prophesy,
With a near aim, of the main chance of things
As yet not come to life.”
—William Shakespeare (15641616)