Thomas Whitehead has achieved a hat-trick of successes in the UK Masonry Skills Challenge organised by Stone Federation Great Britain.

In 2010, just one month after starting his apprenticeship, Tom achieved his first win in the competition.

Last year he repeated the feat in the national finals after also topping the English/Welsh heats.

Now Thomas, at 21, has won the 2012 national competition again. It was held this year at Weymouth College, where Tom is a block release student, on 30 May.

His success helped give Weymouth College top place in the team competition, although there was no doubt about it because the College also took second and third place.

The competition came from Bath College, the Building Crafts College, Elgin Stonemasonry, Moulton College, Telford College and York.

Tom was overall winner after winning the England / Wales heat. The Scotland / Ireland heat was held at Edinburgh’s Telford College on 23 May and was won jointly by George Marshall and John Reid with Ivan Wood in third place.

The challenge is open to teams of three apprentices from any UK stonemasonry colleges. It has the two heats and the final with scores from the heats being amalgamated with the scores in the final to decide the overall winners.

Competitors have to complete a project in a set time. They are given a drawing, a piece of Portland Stone and the tools and materials necessary for making moulds and templates. The stone then has to be worked with a traditional mallet and chisel.

Thomas, who lives in Weymouth, is now in his third year of a block release course at Weymouth. He works for Portland limestone company Albion Stone on Portland.

Runner-up in the final was Edward Shaw, who is also in the third year of a block release course at Weymouth College. He works for Chichester-based masonry company Cathedral Works Organisation.

In third place was Darek Malecki, another year three student at Weymouth. He works for Wells Cathedral Stonemasons in Cheddar.

As a result of his victory ,Thomas Whitehead receives a cheque for £300. Cheques for £200 and £100 go to the second and third place competitors.

Because the first, second and third places all went to Weymouth College students they all got an extra £50, which is given to the members of the winning team. And Weymouth gets the Peter Ellis Shield for being the college with the winning team. Bath College finished second and the Elgin Stonemasonry Unit came in third.

Judges were Andy Maclean from Stewart Designs and Sean Collins from Boden & Ward Stonemasons.

The contest was sponsored by BASF Construction Chemicals, Cathedral Works Organisation, Hutton Stone, Jeremy Carter Associates, Lithofin, PAYE Stonework & Restoration, Stone Productions, Stone Restoration Services, Stubbings Business Solutions, Solnhofen Stone Group, Szerelmey and Vaudin Stonemasons Ltd. The Portland stone was provided by Albion Stone. Stone Federation thanks them all for their support.

The top eight individual competitors qualify to enter Britain’s biggest skills competition, Skillbuild, which takes place at Preston College 12-14 September.

Stone Federation Chief Executive Jane Buxey said afterwards: “Thomas is clearly exceptional but once again the overall skill level was very high throughout the competition.

“That is a tribute to the companies who are investing in training and the colleges that play such an important part in keeping this ancient skill alive and well.”