World Championships returns to Bottle Inn

The Stinging Nettle Eating World Championships has been revived at a Dorset pub, with the winner chomping through leaves on 74ft (22.5m) on nettle stems.

The bizarre but popular event returned to the newly renovated Bottle Inn in Marshwood, Dorset, on Saturday, after a six-year break.

The hour-long competition involves eating the leaves from 2ft lengths of stinging nettles before the empty stalks are counted.

Michael Hobbs was proclaimed men’s champion while first-time entrant Lucy Dimody won the women’s competition, munching her way through 68ft (21m).

Tessa and Julian Blundy, who have been renovating the 16th-Century pub, restarted the competition, with entrants restricted to 40 competitors.

The Bottle Inn first hosted its nettle eating contest in 1986 and the tradition almost died out when the pub closed in 2019.

In 2022, it was revived by Dorset Nectar Cider Farm, which ran it for three years while the Bottle Inn was closed.

This year’s event also saw a nettle-growing competition, won by Jamie Giles who produced a 8ft 8in (2.6m) stem.

Mr Giles, who works in mental health, said he had a patch of nettles in his garden of “prodigious length”

“We’re blessed to live in one of the most beautiful parts of Dorset with clay-based soil and lots of sun.”

He described the return of the championship to its original home as “a great comeback story”.

“Its a great local endeavour and a great event for Marshwood. A really fun event which the whole village got behind.”