This year’s World Conker Championships could be cancelled after back-to-back heatwaves left Britain’s chestnuts significantly smaller than usual.

Organisers of the annual international contest, due to take place in Southwick, Northamptonshire, on October 11, are considering whether the event can proceed amid fears that the scorching summer has damaged the nation’s conker crop.

Officials are concerned that chestnuts collected following the summer may be too small for competition. The tournament needs 3,000 substantial conkers, each measuring around two inches across, to go ahead.

A cancellation would disappoint the estimated 2,500 spectators and 256 players expected to attend the popular event.

Championship organisers are set to decide the event’s fate at a meeting on September 30, following a nationwide assessment of the condition and size of Britain’s conkers.

St John Burkett, a spokesman for the World Conker Championships, said: “We are deeply concerned that we will not have enough conkers of a decent size to play with. It appears there could be a shortage.

“We thought last year was bad, but this year is even worse. It looks as though it could be the worst year ever for conkers.”

He added: “It is clear the heatwaves will cause problems for conkers, particularly when you consider the poor harvests affecting other water-stressed trees, including apples, pears and hawthorns.”

‘Some chestnut trees have no conkers at all, some have unripe conker husks, and some have many conkers but look small – and small conkers are no good to play with as they don’t break properly. 

‘Ahead of our September 30 meeting, we have asked our committee members across the country to conduct a review of trees in their areas to establish the likelihood of having enough large conkers to play with. 

MORE STORY: Afghan Migrant Accused in British Woman’s Death ‘Beaten’ in Jail

‘We need 3,000 large conkers for the competition. We would encourage members of the public to check conker trees in their area and report to us on their quality via our website.’ 

It is not the first time the World Conker Championships have faced a crisis. In 2024, they were hit by a ‘cheating’ scandal after the losing grand finalist was found with a steel dummy conker in his pocket – having won bouts in one hit. 

David Jakins, 82, won his quarter and semi-final in one strike – almost unheard of in the game – clinching the men’s title in a surprise run to victory at the 46th attempt after competing annually since 1977.

He eventually lost in the grand final to first-time competitor Kelci Banschbach, 34, from Indianapolis in Indiana – who became the first American to clinch the title since it began in 1965. 

But when retired engineer Jakins was searched after the event, he was found to have a steel conker, shaped and painted to look real, and threaded on an identical lace, concealed in a pocket. 

Amid further allegations of a ‘fix’, Jakins – who was also the tournament’s top judge and had the nickname ‘King Conker’ – drilled and inserted strings in other competitors’ chestnuts.

Jakins denies cheating and claimed he carried around his steel conker for ‘humour value’, insisting he never used it during the contest. 

The subsequent probe, which considered video and photographic evidence as well as testimony and examination of winning conkers, concluded that Mr Jakins’ men’s win – his first since he began competing in 1977 – was achieved fairly. 

But it led to airport-style security at last year’s championships, designed to prevent another scandal. 

Organiser St John Burkett said last year of the tightened security measures: ‘We had an airport-style scanner which competitors had to pass through, including a tray for them to empty their pockets in. 

‘We also had a hand-held scanner, and sirens and flashing lights should anything untoward be detected by the scanner. And, in keeping with the event, the ringmaster had a big magnet on a stick.’

Miriam Margolyes has long built a reputation for frank, often divisive commentary.

Over the years, the actress has repeatedly drawn criticism for her outspoken remarks, most recently prompting renewed backlash following an appearance on This Morning.

During last week’s interview, ITV producers stepped in after Margolyes asked presenter Andi Peters about his race and described him as “high yalla”.

The phrase, also written as “high yaller” or “high yellow”, is an outdated and offensive US slang expression for a Black person with a light complexion.

The comments were later removed from the programme’s ITVX version, but clips have circulated widely online. Many viewers subsequently used X, formerly Twitter, to voice anger over Margolyes’ language.

However, it is not the first occasion on which Margolyes has generated controversy with her views.

Boris Johnson death wish

Margolyes received more than 500 Ofcom complaints after saying she wanted former Prime Minister Boris Johnson to “die” from coronavirus.

The former Prime Minister was hospitalised after catching the virus back in 2020. 

During an appearance on the Channel 4 show The Last Leg, Miriam spoke openly on her thoughts with how the government was handling the Covid-19 pandemic. 

She said: ‘Appallingly, of course, appallingly. It’s a disgrace, it’s a scandal. It’s a public scandal.’

Miriam added: ‘I had difficulty not wanting Boris Johnson to die. 

‘I wanted him to die. Then I thought that will reflect badly on me and I don’t want to be the sort of person that wants people to die.

‘So then I wanted him to get better, which he did do, he did get better.

‘But he didn’t get better as a human being. And I really would prefer that.’

Attack on ‘the new Jewish people’

Miriam launched a scathing attack on ‘the new Jewish people’ after claiming in an interview that their ‘essential decency and compassion has been squeezed out.. evaporated’.

Asked about comments made in 2024, in which she claimed the impact of Hitler on Jewish people could be seen in the way Israel had turned into a ‘vicious, genocidal, nationalist nation’, the Harry Potter star said she had no regrets, saying it’s ‘because I know I’m right’.

Interviewed for the Adam Buxton podcast, the star admitted that her outspoken views had led to her losing friends including ‘one in particular, who is Jewish and lives in Israel’.

She continued: ‘I’m terribly sad that I’ve offended some people, but to me, they proved that Hitler had won, and that, for me, was such a shock that really hurt me, because I didn’t want to think that was possible.

‘But it’s true, the essential decency and compassion of the Jewish people has been squeezed out, evaporated, and it is a terribly sad thing.

‘But if I don’t speak out against what I think is wrong, who am I?’

Miriam was born into a Jewish family living in Oxford but has become increasingly outspoken in recent years as a result of her hostility to Israel.

She said she had been ‘deeply hurt’ at the loss of friends, who objected to her remarks, and her stance following the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel.

She revealed ‘one in particular, who is Jewish and lives in Israel’ had said, ‘I don’t want to be friends anymore, go well on your journey, don’t contact me again.’

‘He was somebody to whom I was very close,’ said Miriam

‘That was, and is a deep hurt, and that doesn’t go away, but I can’t help it because I know I’m right.

‘I don’t know that I’m right about everything, but I do know that I’m right about the immorality of the Israeli position on Gaza and the activities of the Netanyahu government. That I know for sure they have done wrong.’

‘F*** you’ comment to Jeremy Hunt

Miriam shocked BBC Radio 4 listeners by telling presenters what she had ‘really wanted to say’ to the new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.

Jeremy had been interviewed by journalist Justin Webb about his plans for the government’s new economic strategy on the Today Programme, in the slot before Miriam’s.

The comedian had been on the show to speak about the passing of her friend, Harry Potter actor Robbie Coltrane, who died the day before.

But she went off-piste and decided to make her views about the Chancellor known. 

‘I never thought I’d be sitting in the seat… [that Jeremy Hunt was sat in]’ she told Justin.

‘When I saw him there I just said ‘you’ve got a hell of a job, the best of luck’, and what I really wanted to say was ‘f*** you, you b*****d!’ But you can’t say that.’

Miriam told producers afterwards that she mistakenly believed she was off air, the BBC said.

This is despite being warned moments before by broadcaster Martha Kearney that they were still live.

Calling Charles Dickens’ Fagin ‘Jewish and vile’

In 2024, the BBC pulled a comment by Miriam from the radio after the Harry Potter star said that Charles Dickens’ Fagin was ‘Jewish and vile’ on air.

The Jewish actor was speaking to Front Row about her earliest experiences with the novelist amid her Edinburgh Fringe run of Margolyes & Dickens: The Best Bits, in which she brings to life the author’s most colourful characters in a one-woman show.

And in a response to a question from BBC Radio 4 presenter Kirsty Wark about the character that stuck in her head as a child, she responded with the Oliver Twist villain.

The broadcaster has now removed the comment from the programme – saying that it should have been challenged at the time.

The eccentric grandee sparked laughter among the audience as she said: ‘Oh, Fagin. Without question. Jewish and vile.’

She added: ‘I didn’t know Jews like that then – sadly, I do now.’

One of English literature’s most despised characters, Dickens used anti-Semitic tropes of Victorian England to create the character of Fagin, the London crime lord who ruled over a band of child pickpockets.

The manipulative criminal is explicitly Jewish in the book, with Miriam saying in another interview last month that he is ‘not only extremely funny but horrible, evil, a complete a**e’.

Told to be ‘be quiet’ by Queen Elizabeth

In an interview with The Times back in 2022, Miriam revealed that the late Queen Elizabeth told her to ‘be quiet’ during a meeting.

Their encounter was many years ago, when Miriam was at Buckingham Palace for British Book Week.

‘The Queen told me to ‘be quiet’. It shocked me because I hadn’t quite realised how rude I was being. I was waffling on when she was talking to somebody else, and I was overriding that rudely,’ Miriam revealed.

She continued: ‘But it wasn’t deliberate – I wasn’t meaning to be rude. I say what I think and I don’t care how it comes out.

‘Sometimes it comes out in a way that people find very upsetting and offensive, and I’m sorry about that, but what I say is the truth.’

Controversial dating advice

During an appearance on This Morning, Miriam came under fire for giving some controversial dating advice.

As well as telling one caller to ‘lose weight’, she suggested that another should join a club to meet people.

‘Go volunteer at a centre for disadvantaged, poor people and cripples,’ she said.

‘You might meet another cripple, but that doesn’t matter,’ she added.

‘Lose a bit of weight and wash. Wash very carefully, all the crevices, all the bits you find difficult to reach. Wash!’ she also added.

Criticising Harry Potter fans

Miriam enraged adult Harry Potter fans by claiming they should be ‘over’ the book by now as it is ‘for children’.

The actress played Professor Sprout in the acclaimed film series, based on J K Rowling’s books.

Despite insisting it was ‘wonderful’ and she was ‘very grateful’ to the franchise, the BAFTA award-winning actress said adult fans should be ‘over that’ by now as it is ‘for children’.

In an interview with New Zealand television network 1News, Miriam admitted: ‘I worry about Harry Potter fans.

She went on: ‘They should be over that by now. It was 25 years ago and it’s for children. I think it’s for children.

‘But they get stuck in it and I do cameos and people say ‘Oh we are having a Harry Potter-themed wedding’ and I think ‘gosh what’s their first night of fun going to be. I can’t even think about it.

‘Harry Potter is wonderful, I’m very grateful to it, it’s over.’

Andi Peters race row

Miriam landed herself in more hot water this week when she addressed the backlash to her ‘racism row’ with Andi.

During the initial exchange, Miriam had impersonated presenter Christine Lampard’s Northern Irish accent, before turning to Andi and asking: ‘But what accent would be normal for you?’

‘This is normal. This is what I am,’ replied Andi, as Miriam continued: ‘Oh, you’re a mix, aren’t you? You’ve got a black daddy and a white mummy.’

‘No, no, no. Both my parents are black,’ confirmed Andi, before he joked: ‘What have they put on me, am I a lighter shade than normal?’

Miriam continued: ‘Both parents are I think you’re what I would call a “high yalla.” That’s what they call it in America. Oh, when someone isn’t deeply black, right?’

‘I didn’t even know there were shades,’ said Andi, as Miriam added: ‘There are shades.’

Worried about the direction of the conversation, producers are thought to have issued a warning to Andi through his earpiece – with him then saying out loud: ‘Oh, okay. They’re getting nervous now. They’re getting nervous now.’

‘Don’t be nervous,’ reassured Miriam, ‘We welcome everybody. That’s what I want to write about in my book. It’s about inclusion.’

She was then asked about the incident during an audience event to promote her new memoir, Miriam’s Full English, at Cliffs Pavilion in Southend.

In videos shared by audience members on social media, she insisted: ‘I didn’t want to embarrass or hurt Andi because he seems very nice.

‘I’d never met him before; I didn’t know who he was and I didn’t know he was black until I saw him. When you see someone, of course you know they’re black.

‘I wanted to know what he thought about it because that’s what interests me.’

Miriam then used an offensive term for disabled people as she continued: ‘How do black people feel? How do brown people feel? How do cripples feel? How do fat people feel?

‘You see what I mean? All of us feel something about who we are and how people see us, what they think of us.’

The host interjected to clarify that ‘in other words you wanted to discuss his identity with him’, to which the actress was in full agreement.

‘I am fascinated by other people,’ she continued. ‘They are the people that interest me, not the celebrities so much. It’s everybody. What their story is, what made them who they are, why you are the way you are.’

An Afghan migrant accused of murdering British aid worker Elisabeth Jane Ross and concealing her body in a suitcase has reportedly been seriously assaulted while in custody at a Greek prison.

Sharif Ahmadzai, 26, is being detained over the death of Ms Ross, 38, whose body was discovered inside a suitcase in Athens on July 18.

The Afghan boxer faces charges of intentional homicide, robbery and illegal possession of a firearm. Police were reportedly given information by his wife, Alaina Hall, after she became concerned by his behaviour in the period after Ms Ross died.

Ahmadzai was remanded in custody in August and transferred to Korydallos Prison, Greece’s biggest jail, where he is awaiting trial. The facility has long drawn criticism over overcrowding and the treatment of inmates.

Fellow prisoners have reportedly branded Ahmadzai a “lady killer,” and he is said to have been targeted by inmates hostile to people accused of crimes against women.

Sources claimed the murder suspect has encountered what they described as the “full force of justice” inside the prison, which is regarded as one of Europe’s most unforgiving detention facilities.

A custodial source said Ahmadzai was subjected to a violent assault and “badly beaten up,” adding: “Inmates don’t like lady killers and they soon made that known.”

Officials who spoke to prison staff said the alleged attack took place soon after Ahmadzai entered Korydallos Prison.

‘He was targeted by other prisoners quite soon,’ they told The Sun, adding: ‘He had to be taken to the infirmary.’ 

Elisabeth Ross had regularly visited Greece, volunteering with NGOs helping refugees, homeless people and other vulnerable groups, particularly those from Afghanistan or Iran.

In the time leading up to her death, Ms Ross, who was from Edinburgh, arrived in Athens on June 26 and had been staying with Greek friends in the Keratsini district, the country’s main seaport close to the city.

Police confirmed she moved to Rethymnou Street in the city centre on July 2 and was volunteering with a Christian-based NGO working with refugees. Only two weeks later, her dead body was discovered in a suitcase inside an abandoned building. 

Ahmadzai’s US-born wife, Ms Hall, later told authorities she met Ms Ross through volunteer work in the city and last saw her at a Bible study meeting on July 12. 

Days later, Ms Hall recalled hearing news of a body found in a derelict building in Athens. That night, she said she awoke with a ‘terrible’ feeling. 

The following morning, Ms Hall sent Ms Ross a text message and received two replies further raising her suspicions. 

In her testimony, Ms Hall said: ‘These messages were not in Lisa’s style, both in terms of her level of English and the use of emojis that she never used.’

Ms Hall then tried to call her friend, but never got a response. 

She said she grew suspicious of her husband after she woke to find him missing on the evening of July 15, and, after checking his shared location, found he was at Ms Ross’s flat.

After confronting him, Ahmadzai claimed to be out watching a football match but had gone to Ms Ross’s apartment to use the bathroom. 

‘I don’t know what to tell you, but all of the above made me feel strange. Especially combining the dates, the messages and my husband’s behaviour, I have various thoughts that make me feel uncomfortable,’ Ms Hall told police.  

Authorities began probing Ahmadzai after Ms Hall allegedly reported her husband had been behaving suspiciously on July 30.

Detectives then discovered CCTV footage which allegedly shows him leaving the apartment where Ms Ross was staying with a suitcase and dropping it where her remains were found on July 16.

During his testimony, Ahmadzai claimed: ‘I never did harm to anyone. I want you to understand me and believe me. I was just in a panic.’  

He said he visited the house where Ms Ross was staying, and found her lying on the bathroom floor.

‘[She] was spitting something like water out of her mouth. I spoke to her two or three times, but she didn’t respond. I froze. My legs went numb,’ he said.

Ahmadzai claimed he then panicked and left the house, where he encountered an elderly man near a bus stop. He reportedly asked the man what he should do after finding a dead body.

He said: ‘[The old man] told me that he worked with hospitals and he knows about them and what I should do is remove it from the house, or I will get into trouble. I sat and thought about what he told me for a few hours.’

He then admitted he returned to the apartment the following day, putting Ms Ross’s body in a black suitcase before placing it in the boot of the red Peugeot he was driving.

‘I started in the Peugeot, arrived near my house and parked it,’ he said, ‘I got out of the car, took the suitcase out of the trunk and walked to an abandoned building across from the Panhellenic University.

‘There I found the old man I told you about who gave me the advice. He told me to leave the suitcase with him, and he would take care of it.’

Ahmadzai told police he had taken Ms Ross’s phone and bank cards, with which he withdrew more than €10,000 from an ATM in Athens. 

He continued: ‘In addition to Lisa’s cards, I also took her mobile phone. From that, I sent some messages to people close to her to reassure them that she was okay.

‘I don’t know what I was thinking. I wasn’t thinking clearly. I gave all the money I took out of Lisa’s cards to the old man because he was blackmailing me that he would tell everything to the police.

‘As far as I know, this old man’s name is Nikos, and he frequents the place where I left the suitcase.’

In August, Ahmadzai denied killing Ms Ross but claimed an ‘old man’ had persuaded him to move the body.

The Afghani reached the island of Lesvos in 2016. He then converted to Christianity and married US-born Christian Ms Hall in 2023 before they set up a ministry helping refugees in Athens.