A former Sheffield College photography student has been crowned the 2009 Times/Canon Young Photographer of Year.

Matthew Lloyd, 24, graduated from the photojournalism course in June 2008 and has been working for North News and Pictures Agency since.

He becomes the seventh graduate since 2002 from the Sheffield College course, which is accredited by the National Council for the Training of Journalists, to win The Times competition.

Matthew said: “I’m delighted. I really didn’t know I was going to win as the judging panel gave me a real grilling at the interview stage.

“I put a lot of work into my application. Just a week before the interview we were given a surprise brief to capture a newsworthy story local to us and I was up all night making sure my final prints were ready.”

He received his award and prize of photographic equipment on Tuesday night at Canon’s business design centre in North London and will now enjoy a six-month staff contract with The Times and a year’s membership of the British Press Photographers’ Association.

From 200 award entries a shortlist of six was chosen and Matthew was joined on it by two other photographers who studied at Sheffield College, Hannah Kinver and Matt Kirwan.

Paul Delmar, photojournalism course leader at the College, said: “It’s a real honour a former Sheffield College student has won this award, as this is now the seventh year that a young photographer from our course has won.”

The final judging panel included The Times picture editor Paul Sanders, photographers Marc Aspland and Scott Montgomery and Nick Millen of Canon Professional Imaging.