Exeter businesses go bonkers conkers

There’s nothing like a competitive game of conkers and teams taking part in the annual Brewin Dolphin Bonkers Conkers event in Exeter were certainly in it to win it.

Taking place at Lloyds Lounge, different businesses were competing – all of them keen to take home the coveted King Conker trophy.

For the uninitiated, conkers are the seeds of horse chestnut trees and the traditional game is played between two people who each have their selected conker on a strong piece of string. Players take it in turns to strike until the defeated conker is destroyed.

“We held a world-cup style group stage, with the winners of each going on to battle it out in the semi-finals,” explained Brewin Dolphin Chartered Wealth Manager Kelly Eva. “After some excellent food, everyone gathered to watch the gripping final between ‘Katie’s Conkerors’ of Dunn & Baker and ‘The Horse BESTnuts’ from Trowers and Hamlin. ‘Katie’s Conkerors’ emerged victorious after five minutes of tense conker action.”

Brewin Dolphin’s South West charity of the year is Heartswell, an organisation that supports heart patients and their carers in Devon and Cornwall. Funds were raised for them on the night through entries to a competition to guess how many conkers were in a jar. The answer was 133 and Dan Pollard of Dunn & Baker guessed the right answer - winning himself a bottle of Conker gin.

It’s the sixth consecutive year that Brewin Dolphin, a wealth management company with offices in Exeter, Plymouth and Truro, has run Bonkers Conkers. Businesses taking part were Gilbert Stephens, Stephens Scown, Bush Accountants, Trowers & Hamlin, Dunn & Baker, Francis Clark and Everys.