Campaigners express concern over impact of Oxford Dictionary purge of ‘conker’

Campaign for Real Conkers

Against bans on conker playing

Press Release September 27th Contact Keith Flett, 07803 167266

Campaigners express concern over impact of Oxford Dictionary purge of ‘conker’

The Campaign for Real Conkers, the group that opposes bans on conker playing, has said that with the conker season in full swing despite there is concern that in some areas of the country, conkers are lying on the ground uncollected and undisturbed except by passing squirrels, instead of being used for the traditional autumn game

The campaigners say that a decline in conker playing in some areas may be linked to a lack of profile for the game. Earlier this year it was highlighted that the Junior Oxford Dictionary had dropped the word ‘conker’ from its most recent edition and instead was illustrating the letter ‘C’ with words such as committee and chatroom. Conker remains in more senior versions of the Dictionary.

The campaign believes that conkers is a game that is free to all play and should also be free of rules and regulations whether imposed in contests or petty bureaucrats who argue wrongly that playing conkers is in some way dangerous.

Campaign organiser Keith Flett said, we think the dropping of the word conker from the Junior Oxford Dictionary is part of a wider decline in the visibility of conkers as a game and the impact can be seen at this time of year with conkers lying uncollected on the ground in some places

Link to Dictionary story

• The Campaign for Real Conkers promotes free for all conker playing across the UK an alternative event to the World Conker Championships on Sunday October 11th where it encourages people to have a go at playing conkers without the need for rules, regulations and teams.

Notes for Editors

• The CFRC believes that conkers is one of the few sports that can be played for free. All that is required is a conker and some string.
• It is opposed to championships, rules, regulations and commercial sponsorship.
• It seeks to encourage young people to play conkers. It should not be the preserve purely of those of mature years

Thanks to Paul Frame