Conkers, anyone?

Yesterday I had one of the most fun days in my research job (which says a lot about my job). One of my co-workers from North England brought a bag of chestnuts with holes drilled through them for us to play a game called Conkers. You tie a shoestring through the chestnut and then take turns trying to hit your opponents chestnut which they hold dangling in the air. There is not much strategy and not a lot of rules but it is a very addictive game. The goal is to crack your opponent's conker and send it flying off the string. There are definitely different techniques of how to catapult your conker towards the 'enemy' and it takes a good deal of hand-to-eye coordination (which I have very little of). Duncan (the guy who taught us the game) wants me to be the 'pin-up model' for Conkers (just like Anna Kournikova is for tennis) and introduce America to the game.

So here is the rules of Conkers and the history behind the game.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conkers

Quiz:

1. If your chestnut which is a 'twoer' beats another chestnut which is a 'twoer' what is your chestnut called?

2. What is the other name for a chestnut in America?

3. Who was the first lady to win the World Conker Championship?