Just ask Ben Mason.

For the second year running, the Leeds tournament player attached at Cookridge Hall, missed out on making the top 32 by one stroke at the ETQS final at Catalunya, Girona and a return to the coveted tour where he spent four seasons on and off.

So it is another year on the Challenge Tour for Mason, 31, while 35-year-old Iain Pyman also returns to the second tier.

Like Mason, a product of that remarkable conveyor belt of young talent at Sand Moor, Pyman surrendered full playing rights on the major circuit at the close of last season.

Both, however, earned £700 and will gain a number of starts on the Tour, having gained category 14 and category seven on the Challenge Tour.

Mason, attending the school for the eighth time, finished 36th on five- under-par at Catalunya – where six under gained a card – after rounds of 70 72 65 75 73 70.

Pyman shot 70 67 71 75 70 74 for three- under-par in 44th place.

South Yorkshire duo Danny Willett, who sparkled with scores of 70 67 63 70 74 70 and John Mellor, who shot 68 75 69 72 71 68, had big cause to celebrate as they gained their European Tour cards via the school which finished on Tuesday.

Last year's Yorkshire amateur champion Willett, who turned professional earlier this year after a short but glittering amateur career that took him to the head of the world rankings, was a huge success story.

The clergyman's son, 21, earned the fourth card at the school worth £6,620 after looking a likely winner.

In stark contrast, Lindrick-based Mellor, 38, was making his ninth trip to the school and his 24th-place finish sees him back on the Tour for a seventh campaign.

The former PGA Assistants champion dramatically leapt into the top 30 on the back of a final round 68 which was bettered only by a 67 from Ireland's Michael Hoey.

Mellor, who has suffered with a series of injuries in recent years, said: "I'm delighted, especially given everything I've been through in the last couple of years.

"It makes it all worthwhile, and shows that I do still belong out here."

Willett, who started out in the first stage of the school, will now test himself against some of the world's best players though this year he has proved his worth in Tour appearances as a guest of sponsors.

He said: "It feels good, very good. I played scrappily over the past two days, but I've got myself a European Tour card, which is what I came here for.

"I'm looking forward to a few days off now, because it's been a long couple of weeks.

"Then I'll get down to some serious practice in preparation for the two events in South Africa before Christmas."

Harrogate's John Parry missed the four round cut after carding 71 74 70 71.