The Morning Herald from Hagerstown, Maryland • Page 7

I THE MORNING HERALD, HAGERSTOWN. MD. Nov. 21, 1973 breaking horse chestnuts ASHTON, England (UPl) On the oval green ringed by thatched stone cottages the mightly battle began. Eight men doffed coats, stepped into four chalk rings and drew shoelaces from a green cloth bag.

They shook hands and bashed each others' conkers to bits. A World Conker Championship is like an international tournament in jacks, or jumprope, or hop-scotch. Conkers is a slightly ridiculous schoolboys' a played by threading horse chestnuts on a string and whacking them together until one breaks. But this was the ninth world conker championship, contested the other day by 64 grown men and watched by a thousand people--nearly 10 times Ashton's population--on a village green appropriately dotted with chestnut trees. "Bit of a really," said Peter Gregory of the Ashton Conker Club.

A Ludicrous Sport Certainly there is something ludicrous about any childrens' game played with total seriousness by adults. Conkers is no exception. One solemn contestant dangles his chestnut at arm's length. The other intently swings his conker at the dangling one. After three swipes they change around.

First conker splintered off its lace loses. Gregory jammed his fists into purple pants and surveyed the milling news cameramen, the arriving busload of spectators, the three imported constables with no crime to control. "Beginning to get a bit out of hand," he said of the championships. He meant Ashton's purely village event, its innocent collective joke to provide everydne in. the village with simple fun, was threatening to turn into a circus.

Htlps Charity "Still," he brightened, "all the proceeds go to the blind." Then'he slipped into the Chequered Skipper to collect the con- ker bags. The Chequered Skipper is a pub named for a butterfly, the stone-and-thatch focal point of Ashton's stone-and-thatch cottages. The village was built as a deliberately picturesque unit in 1900 by Nathan C. Rothschild of the financial family on an estate 80 miles north of London. Rothschild was a passionate naturalist who discovered the plague-carrying flea of Egypt and India.

This flea gigantically adors the lunge bar, a (four-foot-long model which must be the most repulsive bar decoration in England. The world conker a i i originated, naturally, among the stuffed birds and pinned butterflies Che- quered Skipper bar. An impromptu joke conkers match outside the pub blossomed within a year into a properly-organized tournament, silver cup and all. Not Advertised It's a village event still. Ashton's 141 people don't promote it; there ire no posters plastering the picturesque cottages.

The village is having a bit of collective, pre-television fun, and if outsiders join in, that's merely more raffle tickets sold for the blind. The 64 contestants this year were quickly splintered to 32. Geoff Bickering of Brisbane, Australia, this year's only foreign entrant, was a first round victim. "Last year," said. Gregory, who lasted two rounds, "an FBI man flew over from America specially to compete." Down by the charity-run hot dog stand a junior tournament began for 8-to-12-year- olds.

Smaller kids scurried for shattered conker shards. 'The Chequered Skipper, keeping rigid pub hours, opened for business, which was brisk. Slowly the field dwindled, as did the soccer-boot laces in the judges' green bags. No contestant provides his own chestnut-- there are too many tricks to harden conkers, like those the kids use. Boys bake conkers, freeze them, pickle them in brine-one made the paper this year by marinating his conkers in soy sauce.

Two-time champion In the semi-final, raised to 'the back of a truck for. better viewability, 1969 champion Peter Midlane demolished his opponent with a classic sideways blow. But the final match was a marathon. Finally, with a mighty whack, George i Ashpole shattered his own conker and lost, 'Two villagers hoisted Midlane on their- shoulders for a victory lap around the field. Mrs.

Miriam Rothschild Lane, the lady of the manor, presented the prizes. The pub was suddenly jammed. After the victory photographs, double world champion Midlane went off in a corner for an informal match with this year's junior champion, Simon Bayliss, 10. Simon won. Israelis put gambling profits to work for charity TEL AVIV (AP) Every year, thousands of Israelis ire treated in hospitals built with gambling profits.

And about 600,000 students, or almost three out of four Israeli youngsters, attend schools built with easy loans from a gambling organization. In a country where private betting is illegal, gambling is big business for the government, says Moshe Talmon, the manager of Israel's state-run lottery, Mifal Hapayis. While some U.S. states debate, whether to allow government-controlled gaming, Israel has discovered that playing the age-old numbers racket is too profitable to pass up. "We average nearly $400,000 each week in profits, which go to building hospitals and schools," said Talmon, who estimated that 600)000 Israelis, or nearly a fifth of the population, buy lottery tickets each week.

They are sold at brightly colored booths dotting street corners throughout the country. A few buyers as many as 200 a year get almost wealthy overnight. Two top prizes of $36,000 are awarded weekly. That's enough to start a small business or to buy a small apartment in Tel Aviv's inflated market, which Talmon says is what most big winners do with their winnings. The Idea of the lottery came up in 1949, a year after Israel won its independence.

The country was absorbing thousands of refugees from Hitler's death camps and impoverished Jews from the Arab world. When Israel Rokach, then Tel Aviv's mayor, proposed a municipal lottery to raise money for medical 'facilities- for the new immigrants, the finance-starved, government turned the idea into a national institution. Mifal Hapayis began operations in 1951. Since then, Mifal Hapayis, money has built more than one-third of the country's 159 hospitals. Talmon says the lottery system has succeeded because "we are able to sell our tickets at a reasonable price." Each ticket costs 95 cents and about one out of three tickets wins a prize at least equalling the initial investment.

Talmon says 60 per cent of the $400,000 weekly intake is returned in prize money and 30 per cent is used in public building. The other 10 per cent is spent in running costs. He says the lottery has contributed to keeping organized crime out of Israel. Japanese quit hunt for monster LONDON A nese expedition hunting the Loch Ness monster suspended the chase Tuesday after a two- month search. Net result so far: a pile of bones and some weird noises.

"We are very disappointed," a spokesman for the 16-man expedition said. "But we shall be back early next spring to try again." The expedition Britain on Sept. 7 with the aim of somehow driving the elusive "Nessic" to the surface with miniature submarines and photographing it. Reports of the monster's periodic appearances in the Scottish lake have baffled scientists for years and amused skeptical area residents for just as long. Dozens of persons claim to have sighted the monslcr over the past 40 years.

photographs have been produced but have proved tantajix.ingly inconclusive. A popular idea ot the animal pictures it as long-necked, small-headed rcp- A Japa- tile with a large hump on its back. The second phase of the Japanese operation will use a specially built unmanned com outer-operated capsule, the spokesman said. This device now being built in Japan, will grope around Loch Ness's murky depths sending out electronic bleeps in a bid to locate the bewildering behemoth arrived in The expedition spokesmai said the first phase of the search cost $250,000 but was not a waste of time and money al-i together. "The divers did hear certain queer sounds when they were down," the spokesman said.

"And then there were the bones." The bones were found in Urquhart Bay, an inlcj midway along the northwest bank of the 26-mile long loch. The spokesman said the bones were und i i but mysterious enough to give Ihe expedition Rood cause to start searching THE CLOTHES YOU FORTHE LIFE YOU LEAD TEEN WORLD BETWEEN THE THEATRES DtfWNTOvVM'lHAGtRSfOWN' 1 JUNIOR TEEN SIZES Egypt seeks data on Suez construction Pacific crossing completed AP Wlreplwto Two of three balsa wood rafts which spent 175 days crossing the Pacific from Ecuador lie at anchor Tuesday about 130 miles south of Brisbane, Australia. The third raft had to be abandoned about 50 miles offshore. The rafts and their crew of 12 had to ask help from the Australian navy because' the current was carrying them back out to sea. Greeks arrest more riot suspects ATHENS (UPI) The Greek army reduced its armored orces in Athens Tuesday but lolice rounded up hundreds of per ew suspects in connection with he three-day anti-government ebellion and troops and tanks till guarded key points in the ity.

Police sources i a about 500 persons were being nicked up each day since Saturday but no more than 10 cent of thorn were being detained. Curfew hours in Athens, where the uprising centered around the Polytechnic school left 11 dead and about 150 injured, were reduced to 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. The government lifted the curfew in Salonika, leaving Athens as the only city still under martial law curfew. Two tanks and two armorec personnel carriers stood guarc over the parliament building along with national guardsmen and army troops.

THANKSGIVING SMORGASBORD 12 Noon'til 8 P.M. Roast Prime Ribs of Beef, Baked Sugar Cured Ham, Shrimp and Alaskan 1 King Crab Newberg, Baked Halibut, Roast Turkey, Bread Filling, Giblet Gravy, Cranberry Sauce, Sauer Kraut, Baked Lasagna, Lima Beans, Sweet Potatoes with Prunes, Harvard Beets and Mandarin Oranges, Whipped Potatoes. Marinated Beef Tongue, Cold Stuffed Veal Roll, Pickled Haddock, Chicken Salad, Green Beans Vinigrette, Potato Salad, Pickled Beets and Eggs, Cole Slaw, Deviled Eggs, Assorted Jello Molds, Tossed Salad with Assorted Dressings, Fruit Compote, Mince Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Home Baked Pastries and Bread, Apple Cider. A i under For Those Vt ho Prefer To lie Our Regular Menu is Available Plus (he Following Specials ROAST with Bread Filling, Giblcl Oravy. Cranberry Sauce and Two VCR $3.75 13AKFJ) SUGAR CUHED HAM with Raisin Sauce and Two A I 16-oz.

Porterhouse Sleak with two DEEP FRIED BREADED CHESAPEAKE OYSTER wilh Tartar Sauce and Two Veg. $3.75 VENICE anil Cocktail Lounge III I Dual By United Prtst International Egypt has asked the United Nations for more details Israeli construction of a causeway across the Suez Canal which Cairo considers serious breach of the 1973 Middle East cease-fire stabilization agreement, diplomatic sources said Tuesday. In Jerusalem, Prime'Minister Golda cabinet met in emergency session to discuss what a government source described as "delicate negotiations" on the most important of the six-point agreement--the dUengagement of Egyptian and Israeli troops along the Suez Canal. Maj. Aharon Yariv, Mrs.

Meir's special adviser and chief negotiator for Israel, walked into the meeting with ing between the two generals In Tel Aviv, a government-, has been set for Thursday. The Israeli source said Isource said Egypt has reneged the thus far on her unwritten negotiations centering on Mrs. Meir's proposal for a mutual blockade despite assurances to withdrawal by both armies to Israel by U.S. Secretary of- the pre-October war lines with a U.N. wedge in between was more important than any of the other points in the agreement.

"These are delicate negotiations," the source said in Jerusalem. "This is far more important because it encompasses a movement of troops, pledge to lift its Red Sea naval State Henry A. Kissinger who a the cease fire' agreement. They said Egyptian warships still-are enforcing blockade at the straits of Bab el Mandeb at the southern end. of the Red Sea.

Western diplomatic sources which would be a noted Egypt may the situation. The other things maintaining the blockade in at- thus far have only technical." been effort to force Israel to to the Oct. 22 cease-fire. The two sides, meantime, lines as ordered by the U.N. ment signed last Sunday.

Egypt and Israel sent out three joint Lt. Gen. David Elazar. armed teams of soldiers to search for forces chief of staff. Both i missing troops in the' Sinai carried rolls of big maps.

Yariv said after his latest round of talks Monday with i a Maj. Gen. Mo- continued to implement other Security Council. A second U.N aspects of the cease-fire resolution stoppec hammed Gamassy at Kilometer 101 on the Cairo-Suez road-their fifth--that "a disengagement of forces will be very, Desert. Twenty Israeli POWs arrived at Lod Airport from Cairo--12 hours late because of what Cairo said was "technical problems." The Red Cross said Israel is expected to return at least 1,500 Egyptian POWs very difficult." Another meet- during the day.

the fighting on Oct. 24. Diplomatic sources in Cairo said the construction of the. bridge across the canal raised, serious doubts about Israel's, good faith in the implementation U.N. resolutions.

They said the request for a new and detailed report made Monday about-the bridge- at Deversoir at the northern tij of the Bitter Lakes 12 milei south of Ismailia. Amltf BUY FASHION FABRICS AT WARDS TOP QUALITY, ALL GREAT VALUES, HURRY! ViOFF! ASSORTED PRINTS tOVELY SCREEN PRINT Mini-care finish Machine washable Regularly 2.34 229 Now 1.15 WOVEN POLYESTER CREPE Wide Machine washable Never needs ironing Regularly Now 249 1.50 Colors: Red, Royal Blue, While, Black, Purple, Navy, Scarlet, Sunset, Basil. RIBLESS CORDUROY Cotton Wide Machine Washable Red, Brown, Sapphire, Purple, Plum, Gold, Maroon, Emerald Regularly Now 2.19 1.00 ASSORTED ARNEL TRIACETATE PRINTS Jersey. Machine washable. Little or no ironing.

Wide Regularly Now 2 3 9 1.20 SEERSUCKER Assorted Plaids and Stripes. Wide. Machine Wash and dry. Regularly Now 199 1.00 J-Vw SAILCLOTH Assorted Patterns. 'ft Machine Wash Dry.

A Regularly 80 ina.