"We are gentlemen at the World Conker Championships and we don’t cheat. I’ve been playing and practising for decades. That’s how I won.

“I admit I had the steel conker in my pocket, but I didn’t play with it. I show it to people as a joke, but I won’t be bringing it again.”

Mr Jakins won the men’s competition but lost in the overall final to women’s champion Kelci Banschbach, originally from the United States, who only took up the game last year when she moved to Suffolk.

Hmm.