24/04/2008

The acting features editor of Aberdeen’s local daily, the Evening Express, has scooped a prize at awards celebrating the best in equine journalism and fictional writing.

Marie-Claire Jones picked up the runners-up award, and £750, in the Under-26 category of the Martin Wills Memorial Trust Awards, for 'Reining in a Sapling', about a boy whose imaginary companion reveals a burning ambition.

The Evening Express is her first journalistic post after completing a post-graduate journalism course at Strathclyde University.

Some of the winning articles will be published in the Racing Post and The Irish Field with work experience at the Post also on offer. Winners also enjoy a day at the races and a tour of stables.

The judging panel included Racing Post editorial director, Brough Scott; journalist, Christopher Fildes; and Sunday Times sports writer, Andrew Longmore. The awards were set up to commemorate the journalist and jockey, Martin Wills, who died in 1992, aged 39.

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