Any number of players aged 8 and up.

Conkers is a popular pastime for boys in England, as well as Scotland and Australia. The game may have originated as far back as the 16th century but it was well known at least by the 1800s.

Horse chestnuts are usually used to make the conkers, but walnuts, conch shells, snail shells or hazelnuts may be used instead.

Each player must have one conker to play with at a time. A conker is simply a nut with a hole skewered carefully through the middle, and with a string run through and knotted securely. The player who yells first before any other gets to challenge.

The challenged player must hold his conker at arms length and at about chest level. The conker must hang perfectly still. The challenger strikes at the hanging conker with his own conker, and gets three tries to break the nuts. If he hits the other players, conker and doesnt break it, the roles reverse, and the first player to break the others conker is the winner.

If the string conker gets tangled in the string of the hanging conker, the first player to yell strings gets an extra shot.

Conkers, which are particularly durable have lives. A one-er is a conker having broken one other conker, a two-er having broken two others, a three-er for three and so on. A ten-er breaking a five-er becomes a fifteen-er. One of the oldest conkers is a 7351-er.