(Reuters) – David Jakins, the winner of the Men’s World Conker Championships, has been exonerated of any accusations of cheating after officials discovered a steel conker in his pocket, organisers said on Sunday.
Jakins, 82, was under investigation earlier this week for possibly cheating by using a steel fake to smash his opponent’s ‘conker’ – the hard brown fruit of the horse chestnut tree – at the annual event in England.
The game, which dates back to the mid 19th century, is won when one player smashes their rival’s conker clean off its string.
Jakins, a long-time participant known as ‘King Conker’ who competed wearing a green robe bedecked in strings of conkers, won the men’s competition but lost in the overall final to women’s champion Kelci Banschbach.
“The investigation has found no evidence that the steel conker was used. King Conker has been cleared of suspicion, and his name is being engraved on the trophy,” a spokesperson for the World Conker Championships said in an emailed statement.
Jakins said: “I’m so relieved to be cleared. It’s been a stressful week.”
(Reporting by Tommy Lund in Gdansk and Paul Sandle in London; editing by Giles Elgood)
