Autumnal blow to Britain

Press, 12 October 1976, Page 8

Autumnal blow to Britain

By

ULI SCHMETZER,

NZPA-Reuter correspondent

A Mexican engineer, aged .39. has ended a proud British tradition by becoming the first foreigner to win the world conkers championship in the picturesque village of Ashton, 80 miles north of London.

But what has upset the meticulously-trained local conker players even more than the loss of their coveted annual trophy to a foreigner is the fact that Mr Jorge Ramirez, from Mexico City, had never played the game until the morning of 'the great event. To rub salt into the wound, the euphoric engineer, who is in Britain with his wife, Rosa Isabel, for a 12-week training course with Perkins, the diesel motor manufacturer, obtained special permission from the contest judges to be a last-minute substitute for an English friend who could not compete. "I entered just for the fun of it,” the new champion ’ I said. I For the non-British. con'kers is a game in which two iopponents face each other

holding a chestnut—baked hard, some say—strung on to a leather bootlace. Each man, is allowed three “swipes’] with his chestnut at that of his opponent, the aim being to smash the conker of one’s rival and thus move on to the next competition.

Despite attempts by South African, American, Australian, and Canadian conker fanatics, the coveted world title has never been wrested away from the villagers around Ashton, in the Northamptonshire countryside, with its thatched houses and narrow lanes, where conkers is a game as popular as soccer, but with a history that goes back to medieval times.

So the veteran conker players, who have studied since childhood the art of smashing an opponent’s chestnut, are shaking their heads in disbelief. Some blamed the summer drought for bewitching the 1976 championship, already under a dark cloud because, for the first time since the Middle Ages, the local chestnut harvest failed this year for lack of rain.

For the championship to take place, 500 conkers,

i hand-picked by schoolchildren, had to be flown by (charter flight from Guernsey (Island, off the French coast. Of the imported batch, the judges selected 140 for the 64 competitors.

On the village green, with its colourful beer tents, 4000 local enthusiasts waited excitedly, as they do every year, for the competition. The odds were heavy in favour of locals, and especially the 1975 and 1974 champion, Mr Jack Marsh, aged 59.

Then this unknown Mexican, “Georgie Rammy Wrist, or something,” disgraced them all.

The new world champion told reporters: “I wanted to go to London today, but an English friend told me I could take his place in the championship because he was unable to compete. He explained the rules to me, and I was very excited.

"When the contest began I was lucky enough to be well down in the draw, which allowed me to sit on the, grass and watch the technique of other competitors. I watched very carefully, and made notes on the way they hit the conkers.

“I can only 1 explain my unexpected win by the fact that I must have picked up enough technique in my observations. When the conker of my opponent burst in the final — which is held on a rostrum — I didn’t know whether to cry, shout, or look embarrassed. ‘I couldn’t believe I had won. It is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.

"All the people looked very surprised but after a while they all came up and congratulated me. They filled the silver trophy with whisky, and I had to drink the first few gulps and then offer a drink to all the other competitors.

“Tonight I am guest-of-honour at a village banquet. It’s all like a fairy tale.”