The King and Queen were crowned after six hours of competing
The new King and Queen Conker have been crowned after a closely-fought contest at the World Conker Championships.
Hundreds of competitors went into battle in Northamptonshire for the event’s 60th year – which attracted increased attention after last year’s cheating scandal, prompting “airport-style” security checks.
Men’s winner Matt Cross, from Bourne, Lincolnshire, was crowned the overall World Conker Champion after beating women’s victor Mags Blake, of Corby, in the ultimate showdown.
“I am absolutely speechless,” said Mr Cross, 37, a newcomer to the competition, which sees players and champions return year after year.
Some 256 people from nine different countries, including Japan, entered this year’s competition, held in the village of Southwick, near Oundle.
“I’ve turned up expecting to go out in the first or second round, but every round I gave it another go, and it just snowballed,” Mr Cross added.
Asked about his tactics, he said it was “just force and accuracy”.
“A lot of it is a game of chance, and your opponent is in the same boat as you,” Mr Cross said.
Reuters
Competitors take part in the first round of the annual World Conker Championships in Southwick
The competition places rapidly filled for the 2025 competition – which organisers put down to the publicity surrounding last year’s King Conker, who was accused of cheating with a steel nut.
David Jakins, 84, was eventually cleared and returned to Southwick on Sunday to defend his crown – only to be knocked out a by a woman dressed as a bee in the first round.
Organiser St John Burkett said of this year’s arrangements: “We had an airport-style scanner which competitors had to pass through, including a tray for them to empty their pockets in.
“We also had a hand-held scanner, and sirens and flashing lights should anything untoward be detected by the scanner.
“And, in keeping with the event, the ringmaster had a big magnet on a stick.”
He added that a man was disqualified from Sunday’s event after he had set off an alarm while attempting to bring in his own conker, which is against competition rules.
Reuters
The former King Conker David Jakins was bemused about the “steel conker” furore last year, for which he was exonerated
Aimee Dexter/BBC
Conkers, many of them donated from the royal estate at Windsor this year, are individually stringed ahead of the competition
The event, which took place at the Shuckburgh Arms, sees participants go head-to-head using conkers threaded onto a string to try and smash their opponent’s nut.
Each player takes three alternate strikes at the opponent’s conker.
Among the entrants were sports broadcaster Mark Pougatch, who missed out on a place in the quarter finals “by a thread”, losing to Finn Vergalen.
Aimee Dexter/BBC
Mark Pougatch moments before his defeat to Finn Vergalen, whose conker had reduced to a thread
There had been fears the event would be cancelled for only the third time in its history due to the hot, dry summer, which caused conkers to fall from trees early.
A nationwide hunt began, with suitably large nuts eventually being donated by the royal estate at Windsor Castle as well as from locations across the country, Italy and France.
Reuters
Hundreds turned out in the village of Southwick, Northamptonshire, for the 60th annual World Conker Championships
“Thank you so much for showing up this morning,” Sharon Nicholls said into a megaphone at 8 a.m. Wednesday outside a Home Depot in Pasadena.
As of Friday afternoon, no federal agents had raided the store on East Walnut Street. But the citizen brigade that stands watch outside and patrols the parking lot in search of ICE agents has not let down its guard—especially not after raids at three other Home Depots in recent days despite federal court rulings limiting sweeps.
Steve Lopez
Steve Lopez is a California native who has been a Los Angeles Times columnist since 2001. He has won more than a dozen national journalism awards and is a four-time Pulitzer finalist.
About two dozen people gathered near the tent that serves as headquarters of the East Pasadena Community Defense Center. Another dozen or so would be arriving over the next half hour, some carrying signs.
“Silence is Violence”
“Migrants Don’t Party With Epstein”
Cynthia Lunine, 70, carried a large sign that read “Break His Dark Spell” and included a sinister image of President Trump. She said she was new to political activism, but added: “You can’t not be an activist. If you’re an American, it’s the only option. The immigration issue is absolutely inhumane, it’s un-Christian, and it’s intolerable.”
Anit-ICE activists march through the Home Depot in Pasadena on Aug. 6.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
There are local supporters, for sure, of Trump’s immigration crackdown. Activists told me there aren’t many days in which they don’t field shouted profanities or pro-Trump cheers from Home Depot shoppers.
But the administration’s blather about a focus on violent offenders led to huge demonstrations in greater Los Angeles beginning in June, and the cause continues to draw people into the streets.
Dayena Campbell, 35, is a volunteer at Community Defense Corner operations in other parts of Pasadena, a movement that followed high-profile raids and was covered in the Colorado Boulevard newspaper and, later, in the New York Times. A fulltime student who works in sales, Campbell was also cruising the parking lot at the Home Depot on the east side of Pasadena in search of federal agents.
She thought this Home Depot needed its own Community Defense Corner, so she started one about a month ago. She and her cohort have more than once spotted agents in the area and alerted day laborers. About half have scattered, she said, and half have held firm despite the risk.
When I asked what motivated Campbell, she said:
“Inhumane, illegal kidnappings. Lack of due process. Actions taken without anyone being held accountable. Seeing people’s lives ripped apart. Seeing families being destroyed in the blink of an eye.”
Anywhere from a handful to a dozen volunteers show up daily to to hand out literature, patrol the parking lot and check in on day laborers, sometimes bringing them food. Once a week, Nicholls helps organize a rally that includes a march through the parking lot and into the store, where the protesters present a letter asking Home Depot management to “say no to ICE in their parking lot and in their store.”
Nicholls is an LAUSD teacher-librarian, and when she asks for support each week, working and retired teachers answer the call.
“I’m yelling my lungs out,” said retired teacher Mary Rose O’Leary, who joined in the chants of “ICE out of Home Depot” and “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here.”
Sharon Nicholls gets a hug of support from another protester outside the Home Depot in Pasadena.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
“Immigrants are what make this city what it is … and the path to legal immigration is closed to everybody who doesn’t have what, $5 million or something?” O’Leary said, adding that she was motivated by “the Christian ideal of welcoming the stranger.”
Retired teacher Dan Murphy speaks Spanish and regularly checks in with day laborers.
“One guy said to me, ‘We’re just here to work.’ Some of the guys were like, ‘We’re not criminals … we’re just here … to make money and get by,’” Murphy said. He called the raids a flexing of “the violent arm of what autocracy can bring,” and he resents Trump’s focus on Southern California.
“I take it personally. I’m white, but these are my people. California is my people. And it bothers me what might happen in this country if people don’t stand firm … I just said, ‘I gotta do something.’ I’m doing this now so I don’t hate myself later.”
Nicholls told me she was an activist many years ago, and then turned her focus to work and raising a family. But the combination of wildfires, the cleanup and rebuilding, and the raids, brought her out of activism retirement.
“The first people to come out after the firefighters—the second-responders—were day laborers cleaning the streets,” Nicholls said. “You’d see them in orange shirts all over the city, cleaning up.”
The East Pasadena Home Depot is “an important store,” because it’s a supply center for the rebuilding of Altadena, “and we’re going out there to show our love and solidarity for our neighbors,” Nicholls said. To strike the fear of deportation in the hearts of workers, she said, is “inhumane, and to me, it’s morally wrong.”
Nicholls had a quick response when I asked what she thinks of those who say illegal is illegal, so what’s left to discuss?
“That blocks the complexity of the conversation,” she said, and doesn’t take into account the hunger and violence that drive migration. Her husband, she said, left El Salvador 35 years ago during a war funded in part by the U.S.
Pablo Alvarado, right, co-director of National Day Laborer Organizing Network, speaks to Anti-ICE protesters on Aug. 6.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
They have family members with legal status and some who are undocumented and afraid to leave their homes, Nicholls said. I mentioned that I had written about Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo, who was undocumented as a child, and has kept his passport handy since the raids began. In that column, I quoted Gordo’s friend, immigrant-rights leader Pablo Alvarado, director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.
“Full disclosure,” Nicholls said, “[Alvarado] is my husband.”
It was news to me.
When the raids began, Nicholls said, she told her husband, “I have the summer off, sweetie, but I want to help, and I’m going to call my friends.”
On Wednesday, after Nicholls welcomed demonstrators, Alvarado showed up for a pep talk.
“I have lived in this country since 1990 … and I love it as much as I love the small village where I came from in El Salvador,” Alvarado said. “Some people may say that we are going into fascism, into authoritarianism, and I would say that we are already there.”
He offered details of a raid that morning at a Home Depot in Westlake and said the question is not whether the Pasadena store will be raided, but when. This country readily accepts the labor of immigrants but it does not respect their humanity, Alvarado said.
“When humble people are attacked,” he said, “we are here to bear witness.”
Nicholls led demonstrators through the parking lot and into the store, where she read aloud the letter asking Home Depot to take a stand against raids.
Outside, where it was hot and steamy by mid-morning, several sun-blasted day laborers said they appreciated the support. But they were still fearful, and desperate for work.
Jorge, just shy of 70, practically begged me to take his phone number.
Wealthy first-time political candidate Stephen J. Cloobeck is spending $1.4 million on television ads starting Tuesday — the first barrage of cable and broadcast messaging that Californians will likely be bombarded with in next year’s governor’s election.
Cloobeck’s campaign declined to preview the 30-second ad on Monday, but the candidate confirmed the size of the ad buy. Public records of advertising purchases show that Cloobeck bought space in every California market on cable, as well as broadcast television time in Sacramento. He also bought time in New York City and Washington, D.C. — as well as West Palm Beach, the location of President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.
Cloobeck confirmed the size of the buy; a campaign advisor confirmed that they would run through Monday and that he was also launching a social-media effort.
“I will always Fight for California. All Californians deserve the contract to be fulfilled for an affordable livable workable state,” Cloobeck said in a text message. “Watch [the ad] and you will see how a conservative Democrat fights for All Californians.”
The candidates need to raise their name recognition among California’s 22.9 million registered voters, which makes Cloobeck’s early advertising understandable, according to Democratic strategists.
“It’s unprecedented for regular business. Not for this race,” said Democratic media buyer Sheri Sadler, who is not currently affiliated with a candidate in the contest.
It’s also not unprecedented for Cloobeck, a Beverly Hills philanthropist and businessman. He announced his gubernatorial run in November with a fusillade of television and digital ads.
While the 63-year-old’s exact net worth is unclear, he made his fortune in real estate and hospitality. He founded Diamond Resorts International, a timeshare and vacation property company, which he sold in 2016. Earlier, he appeared on several episodes of the reality-television show “Undercover Boss,” which sends executives in disguise into low-level jobs at their businesses.
While Cloobeck has not run for office before, he has long been a prodigious Democratic donor and fundraiser. He also played a critical role in renaming the airport in Las Vegas after the late Sen. Harry Reid, whom he describes as a father figure. The bookshelves at his sprawling Beverly Hills mansion are lined with pictures of himself with Democratic presidents and many other prominent members of the party.
Cloobeck announced last week that he was contributing $10 million to his campaign, on top of the $3 million he initially seeded it with. His wealth was on vivid display at the California Democratic Party‘s spring convention, where canvassers who said they were paid $25 per hour wore royal blue shirts emblazoned with his name chanted his name. Cloobeck said at the time that his campaign had spent “probably a couple hundred thousand dollars” on the effort.
Aimee Dexter/BBC
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