HEALTH and safety chiefs may have concluded that conkers present a serious threat of injury, but a school in Ryedale is not letting that prevent it holding a good, old-fashioned conker championship.

Council bosses in Suffolk have put a sign on a horse-chestnut tree warning walkers to beware falling conkers, while in Nottingham, the local authority has removed all the conkers from a tree after a girl was hurt by a falling branch.

However, pupils at Terrington Hall School, Terrington, are taking part in an inter-house conker championship, with a scientific twist to the fun.