Smash and grab

Harry Lockett, left, and George Williams, both pupils at Bradford Grammar School, West Yorks, stage a conker fight in the school grounds. A playground favourite for decades, the first recorded game was on the Isle of Wight in 1848. In recent years, however, many horse chestnut trees have been blighted by leaf-miner moths (Cameraria ohridella) whose caterpillars tunnel through leaves, reducing the tree’s ability to photosynthesise. They are thought to have been accidentally imported from Macedonia.