Yes we had that rule as well. I thought it was complicated enough already - I've tried to explain some of the finer points of cricket on this forum and failed, though.

I remember being near Paris and seeing conkers lying on the ground, unwanted by anyone. We could never wait for them to fall and would bombard the trees with logs, stones, halfbricks. Nobody parked their car anywhere near a horse chesnut tree in October.

And somehow only a leather bootlace was the right sort of conker string. I don't suppose you can get them these days. Even today's modern nostalgia isn't as good as the stuff we used have!