THE cream of Herefordshire's school athletes produced some eye-catching performances in the annual Mason Trophy, an Inter-Counties competition staged at the prestigious Alexander Stadium in Birmingham.

A number of athletes managed to obtain the necessary standards to secure places in the Hereford and Worcester team for the English Schools’ Track and Field National Championships at Gateshead in a few weeks time - with Ewan Proctor being awarded a place after falling agonisingly short of the qualifying mark.

The Bishop of Hereford’s Bluecoat School pupil finished fourth in the Junior Boys 200 metres in a time of 24.01 seconds - and the qualifying standard was 24.0.

Proctor was also part of the victorious Junior Boys 4x100 metres Relay team, who ran within the qualifying time in 46.05 seconds.

The team was made up of Josh Pearson (St Augustine’s, Redditch), Jed Douthwaite (Whitecross School, Hereford), James Andrews (Droitwich High School) and Proctor (Bishops).

Herefordshire and Worcestershire finished equal fifth with Nottinghamshire in the 10-team event, but were only two points off fourth-placed Northamptonshire as they bettered their score from the 2014 tournament.