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Conkers
Conkers is a traditional children's game in Great Britain and Ireland played using the seeds of horse chestnut trees—the name 'conker' is also applied to the seed and to the tree itself. The game is played by two players, each with a conker threaded onto a piece of string: they take turns striking each other's conker until one breaks. Origins The first mention of the game is in Robert Southey's memoirs published in 1821. He describes a similar game, but played with snail shells or hazelnuts. It was only from the 1850s that using horse chestnuts was regularly referred to in certain regions. The game grew in popularity in the 19th century, and spread beyond England. The first recorded game of Conkers using horse chestnuts was on the Isle of Wight in 1848.Iona and Peter Opie, ''Children's Games in Street and Playground: Chasing, catching, seeking, hunting, racing, duelling, exerting, daring, guessing, acting, pretending'', Oxford: Clarendon, 1969p. 232 There is uncertainty ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World Conker Championships
The World Conker Championships (WCC) is a conkers tournament held annually on the second Sunday in October in the county of Northamptonshire, England. Two players use conkers threaded onto a string and take turns to strike the other's nut until it shatters. Players from around the world enter the tournament, competing in a knock-out format in both team and individual formats, with titles for men's, women's and youth categories. Up to 5,000 spectators watch around 400 players participating. from many countries, including Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Ukraine, the United States and the United Kingdom. WCC History The World Conker Championships began in 1965 when a group of anglers in Ashton held a conker contest at the Chequered Skipper public house because the weather was too bad to go fishing. At the event, a small collection was made for charity, by a person with a blind relative. Since then the event ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aesculus Hippocastanum Fruit
The genus ''Aesculus'' ( or ), with species called buckeye and horse chestnut, comprises 13–19 species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae. They are trees and shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with six species native to North America and seven to 13 species native to Eurasia. Several hybrids occur. ''Aesculus'' exhibits a classical Arcto-Tertiary distribution. Mexican buckeye seedpods resemble the ''Aesculus'' seedpods, but belong to a different genus. Carl Linnaeus named the genus ''Aesculus'' after the Roman name for an edible acorn. Common names for these trees include "buckeye" and "horse chestnut", though they are not in the same order as the true chestnuts, '' Castanea'' in the Fagales. Some are also called white chestnut or red chestnut. In Britain, they are sometimes called conker trees because of their link with the game of conkers, played with the seeds, also called conkers. Description ''Aesculus'' species have stout shoots with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Horse Chestnut
The genus ''Aesculus'' ( or ), with species called buckeye and horse chestnut, comprises 13–19 species of flowering plants in the family Sapindaceae. They are trees and shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere, with six species native to North America and seven to 13 species native to Eurasia. Several hybrids occur. ''Aesculus'' exhibits a classical Arcto-Tertiary distribution. Mexican buckeye seedpods resemble the ''Aesculus'' seedpods, but belong to a different genus. Carl Linnaeus named the genus ''Aesculus'' after the Roman name for an edible acorn. Common names for these trees include "buckeye" and "horse chestnut", though they are not in the same order as the true chestnuts, '' Castanea'' in the Fagales. Some are also called white chestnut or red chestnut. In Britain, they are sometimes called conker trees because of their link with the game of conkers, played with the seeds, also called conkers. Description ''Aesculus'' species have stout shoots with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Campaign For Real Conkers
Keith Flett (born 31 October 1956) is a British socialist historian and a prolific letter writer in the British press. Activities Letters from "Keith Flett, London N17" are regularly published in the press, literary and political journals, advancing his favoured causes of socialism and the Beard Liberation Front. Flett's contributions (sometimes termed "fletters") appear in the letters pages of the ''London Review of Books'', ''Private Eye'', ''New Statesman'', '' The Morning Star'', '' What's Brewing'' and ''Tribune''. Flett has claimed that his first published letter was in ''The Guardian'', criticising an article by Eric Hobsbawm on Soviet history. Flett has written and edited a number of history books. He has also written for the left-wing newspaper the ''Socialist Worker'' and is an active supporter of the Socialist Workers Party. He is convenor of the London Socialist Historians Group and the president of the Haringey Trades Council. Flett is the 'organiser' of the Beard ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cockfighting
A cockfight is a blood sport, held in a ring called a cockpit. The history of raising fowl for fighting goes back 6,000 years. The first documented use of the ''word'' gamecock, denoting use of the cock as to a "game", a sport, pastime or entertainment, was recorded in 1634, after the term "cock of the game" used by George Wilson, in the earliest known book on the sport of cockfighting in ''The Commendation of Cocks and Cock Fighting'' in 1607. But it was during Magellan's voyage of discovery of the Philippines in 1521 when modern cockfighting was first witnessed and documented for Westerners by the Italian Antonio Pigafetta, Magellan's chronicler, in the Kingdom of Taytay. The combatants, referred to as gamecocks (not to be confused with game birds), are specially bred and conditioned for increased stamina and strength. Male and female chickens of such a breed are referred to as game fowl. Cocks possess congenital aggression toward all males of the same species. Wagers are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Top Gear (current Format)
Top Gear may refer to: * "Top gear", the highest gear available in a vehicle's manual transmission Television * ''Top Gear'' (1977 TV series), a British motoring magazine programme * ''Top Gear'' (2002 TV series), a relaunched version of the original show * ''Top Gear'' (2011 TV series), a Chinese adaptation * ''Top Gear'' (2014 TV series), another Chinese adaptation * ''Top Gear'' (American TV series), 2010–2016 * ''Top Gear America'', a 2017 series * ''Top Gear Australia, 2008–2012 * ''Top Gear France'', from 2015 * ''Top Gear Italia'', 2016 * ''Top Gear Korea'', from 2011 * ''Top Gear Russia'', 2009 Other uses * ''Top Gear'' (magazine), a British magazine based on the TV show ** ''Top Gear'' (Indian magazine) * ''Top Gear'' (radio programme), BBC radio music programme 1964–1975 *Top Gear (retailer), clothes boutique of the 1960s in London * ''Top Gear'' (video game series) ** ''Top Gear'' (video game), for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System See also * Propulsi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Keele University
Keele University, officially known as the University of Keele, is a public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, Keele was granted university status by Royal Charter in 1962. Keele occupies a rural campus close to the village of Keele and consists of extensive woods, lakes and Keele Hall set in Staffordshire Potteries. It has a science park and a conference centre, making it the largest campus university in the UK. The university's School of Medicine operates the clinical part of its courses from a separate campus at the Royal Stoke University Hospital. The School of Nursing and Midwifery is based at the nearby Clinical Education Centre. History Establishment Cambridge and Oxford Extension Lectures had been arranged in the Potteries since the 1890s, but outside any organised educational framework or establishment. In 1904, funds were raised by local in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Its southern and western border with the United States, stretching , is the world's longest binational land border. Canada's capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. Indigenous peoples have continuously inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years. Beginning in the 16th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled along the Atlantic coast. As a consequence of various armed conflicts, France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native English-speakers, and the province's population is 969,383 according to the 2021 Census. It is the most populous of Canada's Atlantic provinces. It is the country's second-most densely populated province and second-smallest province by area, both after Prince Edward Island. Its area of includes Cape Breton Island and 3,800 other coastal islands. The Nova Scotia peninsula is connected to the rest of North America by the Isthmus of Chignecto, on which the province's land border with New Brunswick is located. The province borders the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine to the west and the Atlantic Ocean to the south and east, and is separated from Prince Edward Island and the island of Newfoundland by the Northumberland and Cabot straits, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Annapolis Royal
Annapolis Royal, formerly known as Port Royal, is a town located in the western part of Annapolis County, Nova Scotia, Canada. Today's Annapolis Royal is the second French settlement known by the same name and should not be confused with the nearby 1605 French settlement at the Port-Royal National Historic Site also known as the Habitation. In 1629 Scottish settlers established Charles Fort at a new location, but it was ceded to France in 1632 and became the second Port-Royal. This newer French settlement was renamed in honour of Queen Anne following the siege of Port Royal in 1710 by Britain. The town was the capital of Acadia and later Nova Scotia for almost 150 years, until the founding of Halifax in 1749. It was attacked by the British six times before permanently changing hands after the siege of Port Royal in 1710. Over the next fifty years, the French and their allies made six unsuccessful military attempts to regain the capital. Including a raid during the American R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leicester, Massachusetts
Leicester ( ) is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts. The population was 11,087 at the 2020 United States Census. History What is now Leicester was originally settled by the Nipmuc people and was known by them as ''Towtaid''. On January 27, 1686, the territory of eight square miles was purchased for 15 pounds by a company of nine proprietors engaged in land speculation: Joshua Lamb of Roxbury, Nathaniel Page of Bedford, Andrew Gardner of Roxbury, Benjamin Gamblin of Roxbury, Benjamin Tucker of Roxbury, John Curtice of Roxbury, Richard Draper of Boston, Samuel Ruggles of Roxbury, and Ralph Bradhurst of Roxbury. The proprietors called this land Strawberry Hill but did not make an effort to settle it for nearly 30 years due to its isolated location and the disruption of King Philip's War (1675–1678), King William's War (1688–1697), and Queen Anne's War (1702–1713). Leicester was incorporated by a vote of the Massachusetts General Court on February 15, 1713, on the condi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Republic Of Ireland
Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. Around 2.1 million of the country's population of 5.13 million people resides in the Greater Dublin Area. The sovereign state shares its only land border with Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. It is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the Celtic Sea to the south, St George's Channel to the south-east, and the Irish Sea to the east. It is a unitary, parliamentary republic. The legislature, the , consists of a lower house, ; an upper house, ; and an elected President () who serves as the largely ceremonial head of state, but with some important powers and duties. The head of government is the (Prime Minister, literally 'Chief', a title not used in English), who is elected by the Dáil and appointed by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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