The Competition
The competition is divided into men's and women's events with some of these playing as part of a team; as the event raises funds for charities helping the visually impaired, blind and partly sighted people can be seen playing at the event. In 2004, 5,000 spectators watched more than 500 participants from 13 countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Austria, the Ukraine, Scotland, France and Poland. France, the winning team in 2003, looked in for a good chance but were finally beaten by Britain.
Prior to the game, 2,283 conkers (horse chestnuts) of the required 1.25-inch width were collected, drilled and strung for the game by Ashton Conker Club officials. Worries were voiced over the leaf-miner moth, Cameraria ohridella, which has appeared in the region and could have a detrimental effect on conker yields.
The competition caters for 256 Men and 64 Ladies. The men's section is split into 4 different colour group each with 64 players. A "gand slam" or knockout procedure is in place reducing the 64 in each group to 32 then 16 then 8 etc., until only one person remains in each group. This is the semi-finals, when red winner may play blue and green may play orange. This results in 2 players who battle out in the final for the title of World Conker Champion.
Read more about this topic: World Conker Championships
Famous quotes containing the word competition:
“All adults who care about a baby will naturally be in competition for that baby.... Each adult wishes that he or she could do each job a bit more skillfully for the infant or small child than the other.”
—T. Berry Brazelton (20th century)
“Mothers seem to be in subtle competition with teachers. There is always an underlying fear that teachers will do a better job than they have done with their child.... But mostly mothers feel that their areas of competence are very much similar to those of the teacher. In fact they feel they know their child better than anyone else and that the teacher doesn’t possess any special field of authority or expertise.”
—Sara Lawrence Lightfoot (20th century)