Four regional daily reporters shared the honours as the NCTJ named its top-performing candidates in November’s National Qualification in Journalism exam.

The training body awards £250 prizes for the best answers in each of the exam’s four sections – media law and practice, news report, news interview and logbook.

Jennifer Mills of the South Wales Argus won the Ted Bottomley Award for media law and practice, which is sponsored by the Midland Nwes Association.

Examiners said Jennifer produced “three excellent answers that showed good knowledge which she applied sensibly to the scenarios.”

The Esso Award for the news report went to Liam Barnes of The Sentinel, Stoke.

Liam produced “an excellent news story blending the speech with important background detail,” said the examiners’ report.

Accurate, crisp copy helped Ben Ireland of the Nottingham Post win the Society of Editors award fot the news interview.

Examiners said his copy was “fast-paced, had a strong intro and good chronology,” while the interview assessor said that Ben carried out a well-structured interview.

Finally Robert Cox of the Express & Star received the Newsquest award for what the examiners called a “hugely impressive” logbook.

“Robert scored highly across a range of key tasks and showed a good consistent approach with all submissions,” said their report.