How many conkers? Harrogate pre-school's amazing world record!

Children and their parents at Oatlands Pre-School were set the task of collecting as many conkers as they could last month to raise funds for Saint Michael's Hospice.

But no one expected them to so totally chesnuts about the idea that a new world record may have been set.

In total 32,968 conkers were collected, more than triple the current world record.

Abi Andrews, the pre-school manager: "The children have blown us away with their enthusiasm for this competition.

"Conkers are so beautiful and tactile that they couldn't resist and went a bit nutty over them.

"We'll be using some of the conkers for crafting with the children, and the rest will be redistributed to The Stray."

The sponsorship drive for Saint Michael's had started normally enough until the chldren's parents started boasting regularly on the Parents' Facebook page about how many bags full of conkers they had collected, creating a serious amount of competitive banter.

Oatlands Pre-School last held this conker competition in 2010, though the total of 16,000 conkers was never recorded, so it never became an official record.

The current world record collection is 10,000, held by four young girls in Belfast.

The pre-school has now submitted an official world record application.

They are hoping a member of the World Record office will visit to verify the youngsters conker achievement.

More than £200 has been raised so far for Saint Michael's Hospice, with more money still being collected.

The winning child, with 10,000 conkers was Brogan, who won a children's hamper full of goodies.

Brogan's mum, Mackenzie Drewell said: "We've been out collecting conkers every waking minute.

"Getting the conkers to pre-school was no mean feat either, my arms are still aching. We couldn't believe how many we'd collected in the end.

"Brogan is obviously thrilled with his hamper and a huge thanks must go to the staff for organising everything."