Wines of Great Britain (WineGB) held its national pruning competition, affectionately known as ‘The Battle of the Secateurs’, on 7 March 2025.
Competitors, judges, spectators, and sponsors (including Claire Seymour and Tim Sillence from NP Seymour) attended this annual event which was kindly hosted Clayhill Vineyard in Essex.
Proudly supported by headline sponsors NP Seymour and Felco, the WineGB pruning competition, which was this year organised by Luke Wolfe of Agro-Pro and James Dodson from VineWorks, sees individuals and teams compete for the ultimate accolade: the chance to be crowned ‘vine pruner’ or ‘vine pruners of the year’.
Now in its 7th year, the competition continues to attract participants from across the UK, with 11 individuals and nine teams competing in 2025.
With their Felco secateurs at the ready, the teams (who had to choose one person to prune, one to pull out and one to tie down) and individuals pruned a minimum of five vines in 10 minutes, with extra points to be gained from pruning and tying down extra vines. Points were awarded for speed, accuracy, and precision with a focus on spur positions, cane positions and sap flow.
First place in the individual competition was awarded to Dragos Nitu of Gusbourne, with last year’s champion Daniel Bojan from VineWorks in second and Tom Bailey from Wiston Estate in third.
In the team event, Davenport Vineyards were crowned the overall winners taking home the coveted Golden Secateurs trophy. Gusbourne’s “A Team” were placed second, while third was awarded to Vinescapes.
As a WineGB patron and Felco supplier, we have proudly sponsored the pruning competition every year since the event started in 2019. As in previous years, we once again provided winners with some amazing Felco goody bags.
This year’s first place prizes included a pair of Felco 8, 910 holster, f602 saw, 703 gloves XL, a Felco 501 knife and a Felco beanie. Second place took home a pair of Felco 8, 910 holster, 702 gloves XL and Felco beanie, while third place received a pair of Felco 8, 701 gloves XL and Felco beanie.
“The pruning competition is one of my favourite industry events,” said Claire Seymour, director at NP Seymour. “It’s good to have an annual event that brings vineyard workers together, and it’s lovely to see the people who work hard ‘behind the scenes’ to care for the vines. The competition gets better every year, and does such a fantastic job at showcasing the art of pruning, one of the key jobs in viticulture, as well as demonstrates the high level of skill we have in the UK.”
Other sponsors of this year’s event included Agrii, Hadley Group, NFU Mutual, Pépinières Tourette, VineWorks and Vineyard Magazine.
For more information on the Felco manual secateurs, PowerBlade range of electric secateurs, and maintenance tools NP Seymour offers, please phone the office on 01580 712200 or email sales@npseymour.co.uk