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 (see below), scooped the title of Toughest Tradesperson 2019, winning a £200 Amazon voucher as well as serious respect. Peter’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.
With almost twice as many entries as 2018’s campaign, there has been some great banter with most of the trades getting stuck in. Mechanics made up the highest number of entrants with nearly 33% coming from them. Next up were brickies and labourers, then plumbers who were both keen to make sure that their trade was well represented. Gardeners, fishermen and electricians all made a case for their trade too in this hotly contested battle.
There were strong entries from across the trades, making the task of choosing a winner challenging. Here are the top four, coming in behind mechanics in Swarfega’s Top 5 Toughest Trades 2019:
- 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 – with a couple of entries from fishermen this year, Graham Nelly Nelson nailed it with his hilarious video, doing his trade proud.
- 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, Ben sent some cracking images of his toughest task.
- Final contender in the top 5, Sophie May Hayes – representing labourers and landscapers, Sophie said her toughest task was digging out 30 tonnes of dirt using only a couple of Cornish shovels and a trac barrow…
As a thank you for getting involved, Swarfega is sending out a TOUGH by Swarfega Gift Pack to the first 10 applicants in this year’s contest.
Tell Swarfega what you think – if you disagree with this decision, let them know why on Facebook @swarfegaoriginal or Twitter @SwarfegaUK!
