Conker bonkers

With the leaves starting to turn on horse chestnut trees across East Lancashire, the conker season is now well and truly open.

And the scramble through piles of leaves to find the biggest and best to do battle with is under way. Players from around the globe will be heading for England this weekend for the start of 35th annual World Conker Championships in Northamptonshire.

And in playgrounds from Blackburn to Bacup youngsters will be holding their own contests. Conkers is one of Britain's oldest known games - before horse chestnut trees were introduced into the country by the Romans 300 years ago children used to play the game with shells.

Now the Lancashire Evening Telegraph is really going to make the conker season go with a swing!

We want to hear your conker stories - whether it is your secret method for making them unbreakable or your record string of victories in the school playground. Perhaps you have still got your prize conker from your childhood or you've got the biggest conker of all time!

Why not ring and tell us about the champion of your school.

The search is on for East Lancashire's all conquering conkerer! Ring our conker hotline on 01254 678678 extension 219.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.