The champion conker

Text 1: The Undertaker, by Barry Whitcombe

An original short story extract.

Danny’s conker was called the Undertaker, and it had won forty-three fights. It hung from a bootlace knotted so many times it looked like a string of beads, and it was so hard and shiny that it seemed to have been carved from wood. Rumour said he had baked it in his nan’s oven for a whole weekend. At break, a crowd gathered by the climbing frame as Marcus held out his own conker, a fresh fat one still pale where the shell had split. Danny took aim, swung, and there was a crack like a snapped twig. Marcus’s conker flew into three pieces across the tarmac. The Undertaker swung back and forth, without a scratch on it. ‘Forty-four,’ Danny said, and put it back in his pocket, where it clicked against his door key like a stone.

Give three words or phrases that show how tough Danny’s conker is.