Mechanics win Swarfega’s Toughest Trade 2019 title

Swarfega’s Tough-O-Meter has handed out the Toughest Trade 2019 title to mechanics, following a hard-fought battle of the trades on social media over the past two months.

Vying for the top spot in Swarfega’s coveted Toughest Trade Award 2019, tradespeople across Britain sent in pictures of their toughest task. Using the Swarfega Tough-o-meter, Swarfega judged all the entries with the toughest tasks rated as ‘Tough as Sylvester Stallone’ and the softest entries gaining a rating of ‘Tough as a Trainee’.

Giving his trade a tough name, crane mechanic Peter Derbyshire (pictured) scooped the title of Toughest Tradesperson 2019, winning a £200 Amazon voucher as well as serious respect. Derbyshire’s entry came out top as it showed him battling a claustrophobic space at great heights and was closely followed by a number of other gritty entries.

Builders were pipped to the post by the following:

• Runner-up: Dru Marland – ‘fixing a hydraulic leak mid-Pacific. It had to be done at full speed or the pipes would have been underwater’. A gnarly way to earn a living, not many of our entries could match the toughness of this task! Putting food on the table at breakneck speed - enough said when it comes to the runner up in the search for the Toughest Trade!In third place, Graham Nelly Nelson.

• Coming in at fourth, Ben Ashley Canham – ‘agricultural engineering at its best, repairing a sprayer rear axle after nearly snapping on the road - one hard job to do by yourself’. Representing agri, Canham sent some images of his toughest task.

• Final contender in the top five, Sophie May Hayes – representing labourers and landscapers, Hayes said her toughest task was digging out 30 tonnes of dirt using only a couple of Cornish shovels and a trac barrow.

With almost twice as many entries as 2018’s campaign, mechanics made up the highest number of entrants with nearly 33% coming from them. Next up were brickies and labourers, then plumbers. Gardeners, fishermen and electricians all made a case for their trade too in this hotly-contested battle.