A few weeks ago, after learning how much Prince Louis, the youngest son of Prince William and Kate Middleton, likes to collect horse chestnut seeds in the woods surrounding his family home in Windsor, the World Conker Championship was intrigued. The competition—for gathering conkers, another name for the seeds—is one of the most traditional tournaments in the UK. Organizers wrote to Kensington Palace to offer him what would have been his first official role as a member of the royal family: To become the honorary president of the organization.
The offer reached the office of the Prince and Princess of Wales, but ultimately Kate and William decided to decline the honor on behalf of the 7-year-old royal. “We really appreciate the invitation, but currently Prince Louis is ‘conker-trating’ on his studies,” the Prince and Princess of Wales replied through a spokesman, according to The Telegraph.
The offer followed statements made by Kate Middleton during a meeting with a group of scouts during President Donald Trump‘s visit in September, accompanied by Melania Trump. The Princess of Wales is a nature enthusiast and royal patron of the Scouts. She shared how Louis collects the nuts and plays with them, hiding them or loading toy trucks with them. “We find finding conkers in cupboards, in his bed—conkers everywhere,” Kate explained to a scoutmaster.
The World Conker Championships organization then thought that Prince Louis might like to be its honorary president and thus help maintain the tradition of presenting its tournament, consisting of matches between two players, each with a conker tied to a rope, who try to hit the other’s until it breaks. After all, King Charles III recently showed his interest in this tradition by sending hundreds of conkers from Windsor Castle so that the competition could be held, after a shortage that had threatened this year’s edition (it takes place on the second Sunday of October). Princess Kate herself has also spoken on many occasions about how important she considers this type of nature-based game for the education of her children.
“Like many other organizations for which members of the royal family are patrons, we have charitable aims and have raised nearly £450,000 to help people living with sight loss,” a spokesperson for the championship explained a few days ago, after expressing how much they wanted Kensington Palace to accept their invitation.
