Shropshire Mums' very own Rubik's Cube whizz James returns from UK Championship with a new personal best at top level competition – Just over a week after his 11th Birthday.

James Ireland took on some of the world's top competitors in the Kewbz UK Cubing Championships held at the Coventry Building Society arena.

The 11-year-old smashed his previous record by nearly ten seconds solving the classic 3x3 cube in an astonishing 15.4 seconds.

His previous best was 25 seconds - sadly his effort meant he missed out on the qualifiers by just two seconds.

James only picked up a Rubik's Cube  - a present from his grand parents, less than a year ago and only his third competition competed against 500 other competitors from representing countries over 30 countries including World Champions star of netflix docu,emtray The Speedcubers Max Park from Canada and Polish champion tymon kolasinski.  James mother Heather and father Rob said they were delighted with his result and very proud of him.

In an exhausting day on Saturday, James also finished just over one second outside the qualifiers in the 2x2 event which he completed in 4.55 seconds and also took part in the,the Skewb and Pyraminx, scoring a personal best of 10.83 in the latter.

"It was a fantastic event with the likes of Max Park who has set multiple world records and Tymon Kolasinski going head to head in the final - Max Park is also know as the star of the Netflix documentary The Speed Cubers and it was great for James to meet them and have pictures taken.

"James was pleased to come away with his new higher 3x3 ranking, his first ever scores for the pyraminx and skewb and getting to have a sit down with Max Park who was incredibly friendly and helpful."

Previously James competed in a competition in Cheltenham where he set his first cubing records and at Droitwich last month he completed the 2 x 2 in just 2.61 seconds,

Speed cubing has become increasingly popular since the first world championship in 1982 and is regulated by the World Cube Association which recognises 17 specialities from 2x2 to 7x7 and the Rubik's Clock as well as blindfolded categories.

Heather said: "This was a fantastic experience for James and he came away with some fantastic scores in only his third competition - James is very grateful for all the support given to him by local media and will now continue to practise super hard towards his next events and plans on heading back to the UK championships next year."