Hail the Conker Champ!

Kilcullen has a new All-Ireland Champion in its midst.

Sean Mitchell of Moanbane Park took the All Ireland U/17 honours at the Irish Conker Championships, held in Freshford, Co Kilkenny, at the weekend.

It was the 15-year-old's second attempt at the traditional jousting with chestnuts -- last year he reached the quarter-finals.

The event was the seventh such since it was initiated as a local fundraiser by a few Freshford stalwarts in the quintessential Irish way, over a few pints. And a Kilcullen man was at the heart of it.

"We'd read about an English conker competition and thought it might be a good idea," says Joe O'Neill, formerly of Main Street and living in Freshford for many years. "It worked, and is getting better every year. We get people from as far away as Canada and Australia, and of course from the UK, for the festival, and at this latest one we had over 2,000 involved."

The proceeds from this year haven't been counted yet, but in 2005 some 5,000 euros was raised for two local charities -- the Special Olympics fund and the Prague Nursing Home.

It isn't a matter of just having conker 'fights' on every corner, as was the case when this writer was growing up in Kilcullen.

"We have to cater for the crowds and for the weather," Joe O'Neill notes. "We hire a large marquee, for instance, because we generally get plagued by bad weather."



Sean Mitchell was introduced to the event by his friend Christy Vierhout (pictured with him above), who comes from Freshford (nope, that's not a typical Kilkenny name, it's Dutch -- ED).

"It has become really big," Christy says. "The local schools collect about 24,000 chestnuts and from these the best 2,000 are selected. It took us two days to choose them, and then we had to drill them and get them ready for the competition."

Only Freshford 'conkers' are used, and none are seasoned from the year before ... the competitors use only the current year's crop.

"We actually went down to New Abbey and picked chestnuts from the lane going to the graveyard, but he wasn't allowed use any of them," says Sean's father Dermot, well known to patrons of Nolans Butchers.

In theory any piece of twine can be used to swing the conker, but a long leather bootlace is actually the best, according to Sean. And that's what he used.

Now that he's champion in his class, there's only one thing Sean has to remember. He has to go back to Freshford next year to defend his title. He's pictured here with Sarah O'Neill, Joe's daughter, was last year's winner and this year's runner up.

When your Editor used to play conkers -- does anybody do it in Kilcullen itself any more? -- some seasoned their chestnuts during the year so they would be virtually indestructable against the onslaughts of the fresh variety.

Storing them on the ingle in a fireplace that smoked a little was considered the best. But a shelf above an Aga or Esse stove was probably just as effective.

In Freshford no such shennanigans are permitted. Which means that Sean will not be able to bring his 'champion' conker to do battle in 2007. It is in honourable and deserved retirement.

Brian Byrne.