Gryphon Gallery: Conkers – A Brief GNS History

Conkers has been a British pastime for children dating back to at least the mid-19th century and who knows maybe as far back as 1066 in the time of William the “Conkeror”.

According to the recent reminisces of some visiting grads of 1966, it is thought that the game took off at Glenlyon in 1964, thanks to probably one of the ex-Brits on staff, seen here performing an impersonation of the Beatles at the Auxiliary’s “Hootenanny” in February of that year.

Conkers continued as a regular activity from that time forward and gained considerable impetus after student, Tybring Hemphill, won a one of city-wide tournament in 1975. From that point on, an increasing number of boys played at recesses leading to the first Glenlyon Championship in the fall of 1981. It was won by Chris Wall. 

From then on the Championship became a regular fixture, with a perpetual trophy, taking on increasingly more activity emphasis, increased student involvement and much needed playoff organization. The “Ten Commandments” had to be drawn up as rules for the competitions to try and reduce contentious issues of what was Fair Play and the ‘doctoring of conkers’ done either by baking, soaking in vinegar, or using a hardened conker from previous years.

Staff got involved in the competitions but only one ever became Champion – the highly competitive Grade 2 teacher, Mrs. Michelle Jones. In 1994, a grade 4 student, Patrick Hunter, went on to bigger competition, taking part in one organized in Vancouver. He was recognised at the time as GNS’s ‘conkering hero!’ In 1983, the Times Colonist heard of the school’s championship event and came by with a reporter and photographer to give it front page coverage.

As the interest and excitement in this annual event increased, Grade eliminations were organized and then each grade champion contested in playoffs to reduce contestants to the final two.  The final was always held at a Friday Morning Live assembly. This usually meant that a “crackdown” was necessary to determine the winner, using the Official Crackdown Brick. 

On only one occasion was there an injury. It happened to a young kindergarten student sitting in the front row at a FML final. After a particularly hard strike, a conker flew off its string and hit the student in the head – thankfully resulting in only a small bump, which was cured by an ice pack and a free ice cream at recess. 

In recent years, Gavin Bowers continued to organize the contest each Fall with some amendments to the Contest Rules and now the mantle has been passed on to another Head Nut for the running of the 44th edition of the Junior School Conker Contest! Hopefully, the abundance of broken horse chestnuts all over the playground will not be the cause of heralding the end of this long-serving and well-loved tradition!