The World Conker Championships have this week been rocked by allegations of cheating after the 82-year-old men's champion was accused of using a steel chestnut en route to victory.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Though this may be the first time you have heard of the World Conker Championships, thousands descend upon Northampton every October for the tournament, which crowns both a men's and women's champion before pitting the two against each other for an overall winner.
Having entered the championships for the first time in 1977, 82-year-old David Jakins won the men's tournament last weekend at the 46th time of asking. Jakins defeated 23-year-old Alastair Johnson-Ferguson in Sunday's final.
However, the feel-good story has been followed by allegations from Johnson-Ferguson that Jakins used a steel conker to achieve victory, with investigations ongoing into the result.
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World Conker Championships marred by cheating allegations
After the men's final at Sunday's World Conker Championships, runner-up Alastair Johnson-Ferguson was livid as his opponent David Jakins was found with a steel chestnut in his pocket.
Jakins insisted that the steel conker found in his pocket was not used in competition, but Johnson-Ferguson was insistent that something fishy was afoot:
My conker disintegrated in one hit, and that just doesn’t happen. Now it turns out King Conker had a dummy steel conker, so he could have swapped his real conker for that one. Or he could have marked the conker strings to pick out a harder nut. I’m suspicious of foul play and have expressed my surprise to organisers.
What makes this whole affair more suspicious is that the top judge of the World Conker Championships is none other than its men's champion David Jakins.
Jakins had described the cheating accusations as a "load of nonsense," but an investigation is ongoing.
We promised you some answers over claims of CHEATING at this year's World Conker Championships. 🌰
Well, some new video footage has come to light.
Here's what the Championships' Lead Investigator St John Burkett had to say.#KayBurley OM pic.twitter.com/khpiZXLXFY— Kay Burley (@KayBurley) October 15, 2024
Speaking to Sky News, the sensationally named St John Burkett - the lead investigator - gave an update on fresh video evidence which has come to light (included in the above clip):
I thought we were going to be able to conclude the investigation by now but it's actually hanging on a bit longer because we need some more evidence. There is a video that's come to light and I just need to talk to a few more people.
It appears to show that whilst Mr Jakins put his hand in his pocket at the end of the match and then indeed threw a conker from a different pocket into the crowd...he was very closely watched by four judges. It looks like it was actually impossible for him to cheat.
We have got some various other testimony which indicates innocence but we just need to conclude the investigation a bit later now.
Under the rules of the competition, each competitor must randomly draw their chestnut from a batch of 2,000 picked by the tournament organisers. Competitors then take turns taking strikes at the opponent's conker, hoping to smash the chestnut - victory is immediately declared when this occurs.
Jakins progressed through the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and final by smashing his opponent's conker on the first strike every time - this is said to be exceedingly rare in the sport.
One of the more bizarre sporting stories we've heard in recent times, the accusations of cheating against Jakins do have an air of the Father Ted 'fake hands' revelation.
With so many competitors and spectators, however, the World Conker Championships are evidently a big deal to a lot of people, and we have to say we're hooked as we await the results of the investigation into David Jakins' victory.
