They have been blamed for stopping so many of life’s pleasures, from Christmas lights to buying home-made cakes. But now health and safety officials have said that it is not their fault that public bodies have been so zealous in banning such joys.

To prove it, the safety officials’ professional body competed in and sponsored yesterday’s World Conker Championships — a game that its members have previously been accused of trying to ban.

And to add to the sporting spirit of the weekend, an Englishman beat an honorary Frenchman to become world conker champion.

Among the 372 competitors clashing conkers on Ashton village green, near Oundle in Northamptonshire, yesterday was a team from the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health. Using carefully knotted eight-inch laces, the health and safety experts smashed their conkers against their opponents’ horse chestnuts in front of a crowd of 5,000 in an attempt to mend a reputation that they claim has been damaged by general scaremongering over innocent pastimes.

Neil Budworth, a former president of the institution and member of its team of four, was knocked out in the third round by a man dressed as a crocodile. But at least he had shown that health and safety inspectors back conker playing.

“I don’t think the public think conkers are dangerous,” said Mr Budworth. “But we are still getting a bad time because of these odd decisions that get blamed on health and safety.

“It all started a few years ago when a school banned kids from playing conkers unless they wore goggles. It was a stupid decision that came to exemplify these sorts of stupid decisions.”

The school in question — Cummersdale Primary School in Carlisle, Cumbria — decided in 2004 that children should wear industrial safety goggles if they wanted to play conkers. Since then, several schools, hospitals, businesses and local authorities have banned cut flowers, knitting needles, balloons and home-baked cakes after arguing that they were hazardous.

“Health and safety is sometimes used as an excuse — it’s easier to ban something than to find a way to let it go ahead,” said Lisa Fowlie, the institution’s president.

The championship began in 1965 when a group of pub-goers cancelled a fishing trip because of bad weather and played conkers instead. This year’s event is expected to raise more than £24,000 for the Royal National Institute of Blind People, bringing the total raised over the years to more than £300,000.

Peter Morris, of the Ashton Conker Club, said: “Players can take whatever armour they want and it’s up to them if they wear goggles.”

Paul Singh, in charge of the St John Ambulance Brigade team at Ashton, said that nobody had been seriously injured because of a conker in the event’s history. “But the burger vans have cookers and boiling water and the ground is uneven, so there are trip hazards,” he said.

However, conker playing can be dangerous. David Zuck, a retired hospital consultant from North Finchley, North London, said that his cousin had been blinded in one eye by a stray conker in 1942. Mr Zuck, 84, said: “He was nine at the time and at school. He was just walking by when a child swung his conker too far on a long string and he was hit in the eye and got a detached retina. There was no question of compensation in those days. It was just bad luck.”

The result of this year’s championship was that Adrian Hurrell, a train driver from Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire, beat John Ingram, an Englishman who runs a B&B in France.

Tina Stone, from Glapthorne, Northamptonshire, took the women’s title.

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