It was a triumphant night for the News of the World and The Times at the prestigious Sports Journalists’ Association awards.

The News of the World and The Times scooped two and three top honours respectively at the awards on Monday.

For the News of the World, Investigations Editor Mazher Mahmood’s incredible exposé of the Pakistan cricketer’s spot-fixing scandal was unanimously voted Scoop of the Year by a panel of judges.

They said: “This award was the only one where the judges were unanimous in their decision…a triumph of a story that sent shockwaves around the sporting world.”

Chief football correspondent Neil Ashton was also crowned Sports News Reporter of the Year.

The judges said: “He possesses the old-fashioned value of having a great nose for a story and the ability to regularly produce outstanding exclusives.”

Colin Myler, News of the World Editor, called it a “fantastic result and richly deserved.”

The News of the World’s Graham Allen was highly commended as Cartoonist of the Year.

The three awards won by The Times included the top accolade of inaugural Sports Newspaper of the Year.

Mike Atherton, Chief Cricket Correspondent, won Columnist of the Year for the second year running.

Matthew Syed was honoured with Feature Writer of the Year for the second time.

Owen Slot, Chief Sports Reporter, was highly commended in the features category.

A panel of leading figures in sports journalism voted The Times the best in its field after a brilliant year that included unrivalled coverage of the Ryder Cup.  Judges complimented the newspaper on its all-round sports coverage, especially the football supplement the game, and highlighted the exceptional cricket writing of Atherton and Gideon Haigh during England’s victorious Ashes campaign.

The Times is the first winner of the new award, with The Guardian second and The Daily Telegraph third.