Ha, we did the same thing at grammar school, there was a row of chestnuts and we'd throw sticks to knock them down and have chestnut fights, fun times until someone got hit in the eye.
There was a 2-3 inch difference in my area but there's also a 300+ feet in elevation variance. I was 14 at 715, lot of reports of 16 in the area in Connecticut and towns east of me.