Читать книгу Montegue Blister’s Strange Games: and other odd things to do with your time - Alan Down - Страница 46

The great disadvantage of conker fighting is its seasonal nature, so if you find yourself longing for a game outside of autumn you should learn the joys of conker fighting’s long-lost cousin, Walnut Fighting.

Walnut Fighting—the true king of seed-related fight games—was last big around the 1900s, and not many people today realise the fun that can be had with just some empy walnut shells.

To play, you need to crack open some walnuts and eat the nuts inside so that you end up with at least two undamaged half shells. A player takes a shell and places it flat-part down on the table. Their opponent does the same so that the pointed parts of the shells are touching. By applying pressure on the back of the shells, each player then tries to force their opponent’s to crack. The first shell to shatter, or just crack, loses.

In the late eighteenth century the shells of snails were used in a similar contest called Conquering Shells. Shells were pressed against each other as above and the first to crack lost. Obviously, if you wanted to revive this game today you would have to use empty snail shells. A pan of snails fried gently in garlic butter makes a perfect pre-game meal.