Location: Southport UK.
Date : 12 – 04 – 2010
The second Maloneys Flair challenge of 2010: Anthony Trueman the January champion was back in town to defend his title along with most of the top 6 that competed with the exception of Matt Wooly who picked up an injury to his hand doing an event a few days before, hope to see you flairing soon mate.
With both the Roadhouse running the prepare to flair and the Bristol Living Room holding a flair comp the day before, plus Clinton Weir’s London Industry Parties holding its first Flair comp on the same day many flairers stayed down south to compete but a brave few still made the trip up to the North West coast of the country. Many guys came up from London such as Eddie and Jimmy who always love coming to compete at Maloneys, as well as Anthony trueman and a very rough Chris Callow who were in the capital the night before partying. Tony Mallin was also feeling the effects of alcohol after his 3rd place finish in Bristol a day earlier. In the end there was 16 of us competing.
After a delayed start the comp kicked off with some real loud music and plenty of 2 – 4 – 1 cocktails flowing. The first 5 or 6 guys were all local lads working at Maloneys Southport and Maloneys Bolton and had some really entertaining stuff on offer. Tony Mallin qualified in 6th place after an unusual below par round but finished off with a big 5 object move. Qualifying in 5th place was Jimmy from Grafitti in London who will be holding a competition on the 12th May, rocked the stage as he always does. The next guy on stage was Dancing Mark. Well, as Oli Pluck has mentioned a name change is definately in order. This guy has really been working on his flair since the start of the year and he qualified in 4th place for the final. 3rd place in the final went to Eddie Weights who had a really clean round with only 3 drops. I took 2nd with a solid first round, saving some more multiobject stuff for the final. 1st place went to Anthony Trueman who really got the crowd going with his big stage presence and variety.
As soon as the top 6 were annonced it was straight back to business as we were running late. Tony Mallin was first up rocking a new routine along with some new music again had a few to many drops, probably as a result of the night before and in the end came 6th, going home with a bottle of Jager which isn’t the best cure for feeling rough but am sure it will come in useful 1 day. Looking forward to seeing his routine nailed at Roadhouse in 2 weeks time. 5th place and £25 went to Mark Welsh who had a very entertaining round with some unusally tin taps and plenty of entertainment. Finishing 4th was Jimmy winning £50. 3rd place went to the local boy Eddie Weights who always flairs with a smile on his face. The top 2 places came down to Anthony and myself. It was a close call as we both had really good rounds a pulled out some big moves but in the end I got 2nd place and was £100 better off and 1st place along with £250 went to Anthony. Best of luck to him at UFL heat 2 in Amsterdamn next week.
Big shout to Ricky Gill and Adam Cooke For organising the Comp and the Southport people for turning up and cheering on all the guys. Looking forward to the next one in July.
DELIRIUM MOMENT OF THE NIGHT: Me finally winning some decent prize money…
Next up this month: Roadhouse world open II Sunday 25th April. See you there
Marco Bernardi
Official Delirium TV Global Reporter
PS. Here are the final results :
1st Anthony Trueman – Island Bar Birmingham – Prize £250
2nd Marco Bernardi – Cosmopolitan Bar Tuscany / DTV – Prize £100
3rd Eddie Weights – The Old School Yard London – Prize £75
4th Jimmy Greenhalgh – Grafitti Bar London – Prize £50
5th (Dancing) Mark Welsh – Panache Bar Liverpool – Prize £25
6th Tony Mallin – The Living Room Leeds – Prize Bottle of JAGER
Marco Bernardi started in the bar industry at the age of 18 after being involved in restaurants all his life. At first his passion was more on the mixology side before working with the one and only Lee Johnson where he was introduced to the world of Flair.
After working abroad in France and Italy Marco began competing at the age of 19 at the roadhouse prepare to flair in October 2008. Now at 21 years of age he has competed in over 30 competitions and has recently become a regular down at the Roadhouse with one top 10 finish to his name.
