Skip to content

'I'm off to Las Vegas for a bricklaying contest'

Izzy BushellWest Midlands
Dale Wherton A man in a black tshirt and cap is standing next to a brick wall holding a trowl. Dale Wherton
Dale Wherton from Stoke-on-Trent laid 859 bricks in one hour

A former bricklayer from Stoke-on-Trent has been crowned champion of "the superbowl of bricklaying" which is better known as the "Super Trowel".

Dale Wherton laid 859 bricks in one hour to win the competition which took place in Hertfordshire.

Winning the contest means Wherton, who now lives in Derby and works as a brickwork tutor, will be travelling to Vegas next year to go up against other world champions in the Spec Mix brickwork 500 competition.

"It's one of those things where even the world's best boxers dream of going to Las Vegas to compete and now I'm doing it to lay bricks," he said.

He previously worked in bricklaying as a contractor for 20 years, including working in Australia for seven of them.

Wherton was a student at Burslem College (now a campus for Stoke-on-Trent College) which is where he gained his passion for bricklaying.

"It all started on my first day, as soon as I put a trowel in my hand, I knew that was what I was going to do for the rest of my working career."

Dale Wherton Three man are standing on a stage, all wearing back tshirts and shorts and caps, they are all holding a sign each, which say 3rd, 1st and 2nd place. Dale Wherton
Wherton will be competing against other world champions in Las Vegas, in January

Wherton's lecturer at the time, Brian Cooper, inspired his love for it and first told him about the Las Vegas event.

"He was passionate about the industry," Wherton said.

"He taught me quite a lot. He taught me more than he probably [realised] and probably more than what I thought at the time."

He added: "I can reflect on how he was when he was teaching me and I'm passing over them traits now to my students."

Wherton had lost touch with Cooper after leaving college but years later at a Super Trowel event they were reunited.

"I bumped into another lecturer that worked at Burslem College, and little did I know, my old lecturer, Brian Cooper was standing next to him."

Wherthon added: "I've been trying to get in touch with him for the last five years. So it was, it, it's a bit of a shock, I had a tear to my eye almost."

He said he was feeling confident about competing in the Spec Mix in Las Vegas in January.

"I'm going up against the best in the world. So it's a nice thing to put my name on the map really. It's huge actually."

Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.