It’s all about accuracy when it comes to winning the conker championship, says the ’conkering’ hero.

Braaid Hall on Foxdale Road was packed with eager competitors looking to claim a winning spot in its annual conker event.

The Braaid Conker Competition attracted people of all ages and varying levels of experience in the old traditional pastime, which simply consists of a piece of twine, a conker and some steady determination to outdo your opponent.

Battling their way into the winner’s spot in the junior section - for a third year in a row - was 13-year-old Lorcan Keating.

He went home with a gleaming trophy to show his success.

Deputy editor Jackie Darbyshire, chief reporter Adrian Darbyshire and reporter Jess Ward represented Isle of Man Newspapers at the competition.

Jess narrowly missed the finals after losing to overall winner Shane Martin in a nail-biting semi-finals which went to ’sudden death’.

Shane’s calm confidence continued into the final against Darren Kelly, another closely fought contest which went all the way to ’sudden death’.

Clearly conkering spirit is in the blood, as Shane’s son George, aged 10, came runner-up in the junior competition.

Shane’s piece of advice is: ’Don’t go for glory. Just make sure you hit the conker.’

To level the playing field, participants were not allowed to bring their own conkers to the competition.

Instead they picked a pre-prepared conker by simply choosing a string hanging from the box where the conkers were kept.

Adults against adults and children against children, two individuals would go head to head to try and knock their adversary out of the game, each pair under the close watch of an adjudicator.

With two minutes on the clock, they would give alternate strikes. If a conker was cracked or if the string and conker came flying out of the competitor’s hand it was game over with the winner moving up the board.

However, if the two-minute round ended in a draw, it then moved on to a best of five, where the focus moved to striking the other player’s conker.

If the scores were equal at the end of that, it was time for a ’sudden death’ round, where the first person to miss their target lost the round.

Onlookers were treated to biscuits and sweets followed by tea while participants cracked on with the nutty occasion.