The UK’s annual national pruning competition, aka ‘The Battle of the Secateurs’, was held on 6 March 2026, kindly hosted by Denbies Wine Estate in Surrey.
Competitors, judges, spectators, and sponsors gathered for the event which was once again organised by James Dodson from VineWorks and Luke Wolfe of Agro-Pro and proudly supported by headline sponsors NP Seymour and Felco.
The WineGB-affiliated competition 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 8th year, the competition continues to attract participants from across the UK, with 9 individuals and 13 teams competing in 2026. This year’s panel of judges saw lead judge Luke Wolfe, assisted by Matt Strugnell, Ian Speirs, John Manicini, Jim Pritchard, Joel Jorgensen and Cameron Roucher.
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 with points awarded for speed, accuracy, and precision, with a focus on spur positions, cane positions and sap flow.
For the second year running, first place in the individual competition was awarded to Dragos Nitu of Gusbourne with 85 points, second place to Ben Ralph from Davenport Vineyards with 84 points, and third to Daniel Bojan from VineWorks with 82 points.
In the team event, Plumpton College were crowned the overall winners with Ben Joseph Bell, Charlie Wilcox and Chris Rudwick achieving 88 points, taking home the coveted Golden Secateurs trophy. With 85 points, VineWorks were placed second, while third was awarded to Brenleywine A with 80 points.
The standard was exceptionally high across the board. It’s great to see the level of pruning expertise continuing to rise across the UK. “Becoming a proficient pruner takes years of practice,” said James Dodson, VineWorks. “It’s both physically and mentally demanding, with each vine needing careful individual assessment.”
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 provided the 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 demonstrating the high level of skill we have in the UK.”
Other sponsors of this year’s event included Denbies Wine Estate, Agrii, Bekaert, Gripple, Hadley Group, NFU Mutual (Haywards Heath), VineWorks, Vineyard Magazine.
For more information on the Felco manual secateurs, PowerBlade and 834 ranges of electric secateurs, and maintenance tools NP Seymour offers, please phone the office on 01580 712200 or email sales@npseymour.co.uk
