Just a few short years ago, the annual Hampstead Heath annual Conker Championships broke the Guinness World Record for the biggest ever knock-out conker tournament, when 395 people turned up.

And Heath bosses have told Heathman they think this year’s championship may have broken that record again, with more than 400 descending on the Heath to play the old-fashioned playground game on Sunday.

Unfortunately, no-one from the Guinness World Record team was on hand to ratify the record.

But it didn’t matter to the hundreds of all ages who came along to do battle on the Heath at the 14th tournament.

Paul Maskell, the Heath’s leisure and events manager and “conkermeister”, said: “We had a quick look at how many were there and it was well over 400.”

He added: “ It is such a good day to come out and enjoy that game called conkers which has been happening for many, many moons, and particularly on Hampstead Heath.”