Is it curtains for conkers?

Conkers [...] is a game of skill and sublimated violence for two players. Each player is equipped with a conker, through which a hole has been drilled to allow a piece of string to be threaded. The string is knotted to prevent the conker coming off, and the game may commence.

Whoever goes first may be decided by coin toss or priority. For example, the owner of a 'sixer' (ie, the victor in six previous games) will have priority over the owner of a mere 'two-er'.

The receiver holds up the hand, dangling the conker on the end of its string. The other player then attempts to hit the dangling conker as hard as he can with his own conker by swinging it overarm. If he hits, he gets another go. If he misses, play switches and the receiver gets a crack at his opponent. This continues until one or other of the conkers is so damaged that it falls off the string. The winner can then add the loser's conker value to the victory count of their conker, turning the above mentioned sixer into an eighter.

Cankers are an area of dying bark, like sores which ooze liquid, and have existed on horse chestnut trees for several decades. But scientists are concerned that an infectious new bacteria (Pseudomonas syringae pathovar aesculi) is causing most of the cankers found today.

This week it emerged that the situation has got so bad that it is threatening this year's World Conker Championships, in Ashton, Northamptonshire.

Every year 5,000 conkers from the area are sorted for shape and size - contestants are not allowed to take their own.  But this is the first time in the competition's 44-year history that its conkers have been affected by disease.

John Hadman, secretary of Ashton Conker Club, believes it is an "extremely worrying" problem, but said he was hopeful this year's event would happen.

"We will send out an SOS. We've already had offers of conkers from as far as Aberdeen," he said. "We're always optimistic. We've had various threats before, but I must admit we are getting more apprehensive now.  I can't imagine that the horse chestnut will become extinct, it would be a disaster if that did happen."

So could it be as bad as Dutch elm disease, which wiped out millions of UK elm trees from the late 1960s onwards?

The Forestry Commission carried out a widespread investigation earlier this year to assess the extent of the cankers' spread.  It found symptoms of bleeding cankers in half the trees it surveyed.

Roddie Burgess, head of the Forestry Commission's plant health service, said: "We do not yet have the complete picture.  For example, we don't yet know the total number of horse chestnut trees in Britain affected by bleeding cankers.  There is a limit to what can be done to combat diseases of trees.  The key things are to encourage tree owners and woodland managers to practise good woodland management and tree care to ensure maximum tree health.  The healthier a tree is, the better it is able to withstand attacks by pests and diseases."

The Commission thinks it is "too early to say" if it is the beginning of the end for Britain's horse chestnut trees.