A man known as ‘King Conkers’ has been dramatically accused of cheating in the World Conker Championships.
The annual tournament was held in Northamptonshire near Birmingham on Sunday but has been engulfed with recriminations.
David Jakins won the men's competition but his victory has been contested by allegations that he used a metal conker instead of a real one.
On Moncrieff, conkers expert Neil Horton described Mr Jakins as a “smashing chap” who is well-respected in the conkers world.
“He’s been trying to enter the competition and win it for 47 years,” he said.
“He’s more of our mascot; he’s known as King Conker - he wears regalia covered in conkers and he’s well loved by everybody.”
Mr Jakins, who is 82, smashed his opponent’s conker with one blow - an unusual feat in a conkers competition.
“Normally a battle would go on for several minutes,” Mr Horton said.
“This time, I suppose with all those years of skill and a bit of luck, he took the opponent out in literally the first blow.
“I was on my way over to watch and it was finished by the time I got there.
“Very, very unusual.”
2016 World Conker Champions are Tom Dryden and Lorna Clarke. Congratulations guys and see you next year! #conkers pic.twitter.com/Vqjlrd7wfI
— World Conkers (@Worldconker) October 9, 2016
The scale of the victory surprised spectators and tongues started wagging.
“As our mascot, David will wander around in this lovely green uniform covered in conkers that he has,” Mr Horton said.
“He will generally talk to families and kids and he’ll talk about the history of conkers and show them… a talisman - it’s a steel conker.
“He’ll challenge the kids to try and break his conker and, of course, they can’t.
“Unfortunately, having got to the final, that was still in his pocket, so aspersions were made and assumptions made that he’d used that during the bout.”
Final decision
Mr Jakins has rejected claims of cheating and told the BBC the allegations against him were a "load of nonsense".
Mr Horton said the conkers world is “highly ethical” and the inquiry into the game is “still going on at the moment”.
“The chief umpire has called for one final review before he signs off on his decision,” he said.
“Which we should get over the weekend.”
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Main image: King Conkers. Picture by: Alamy.com
