A woman who was North Wales’ first female bouncer has reflected on her days on the doors.
Mair Roberts, 53, of Cefn Mawr, is back on the doors after a five year break and also re-entered the world of bodybuilding for one last competition after a successful run in the late 1990s.
Now Ms Roberts, who works at Liquid in Wrexham, hopes the experiences chronicled in the book Who I am? will inspire others to fulfil their dreams.
Despite weighing in at just five and a half stone after an impoverished childhood during which she suffered from brittle bones, she started at the old Coliseum in Wrexham in 1997 and achieved success as a bodybuilder.
Ms Roberts, originally of Bala, started after her then partner asked her to come along one night and help search women’s bags.
Weighing in at just five and a half stone, Ms Roberts said she was “thrown from one pillar to another” early on.
She added: “By the end of the night, groups of women were looking at me thinking ‘I will take her down’.”
Those early days convinced her to take self-defence classes and start building her physique.
She packed on the muscle, reaching nine and a half stone in a year, and achieving remarkable success in bodybuilding competitions.
Those early nights were “battle after battle after war”, according to Ms Roberts
“I would take three shirts to work and I would use them all as well,” she added.
One incident that sticks in her memory was diving to the aid of a man who was being attacked by a man and a woman with a bottle.
“He had a lot of blood on his face and head. He passed out and took me down with him.
“I just curled up in a ball and everybody got in a circle and threw bottles at us.”
Fortunately, word got to reception and door staff came to the pair’s aid.
She spent another four years at Sgt Pepper’s in Wrexham before spending about eight years working in Chester.
Due to the incidents she encountered on the doors years ago, Ms Roberts said she was lucky never to be injured.
Ms Roberts retired from the doors five years ago to focus on
Gym-a-Holic, her business in Ruabon, but also because of the abuse she received due her muscular physique.
She returned a couple of months before the closure of her gym in December and has noticed that things are quite different to the old days.
Security has been increased siginificantly, with cameras located throughout clubs rather than just on the reception.
Door staff sometimes have to call family or friends of people who are worse for wear, Ms Roberts added, and even take them home if necessary.
But door staff have to refuse entry to many people who have mixed alcohol with drugs such as cocaine and ketamine, according to Ms Roberts.
Her career as door security was all the more remarkable due to the years of bullying that she suffered while at secondary school in Ruabon due to her slender frame.
The mother of two told how she would run all the way home to Plas Madoc when the bell rang every day.
“I would do anything not to go to school. I feared school so much because I was bullied all the way through it,” she said
Ms Roberts won Miss Wales, Miss UK and Miss North West – also placing second in the NABBA Miss Britain competition – in 1998.
She retired from competition in 1999, but has been a judge and guest poser at the annual competition run by People’s Gym owner Steve Fong
However, she decided to enter one last competition and took third place in the physique category of the IBFA World Championships on October 23.
She said: “I would have loved to have won but I had made up my mind that it was my last show.”
Ms Roberts told of her pride at representing Wales on the world stage in her final competition.
She hopes to secure a publishing deal for her book in 2016 and hopes that it might have a positive effect on people’s lives.
“My book is all about survival,” she added “If I can do it, you can do it.”
Courtesy of: Leader Live