By Sacha Delfosse – editor bars&clubs
Close to 70 Melbourne bartenders gathered at Fawkner Park yesterday for the first local Bacardi Classic Softball tournament.
The tournament was organised by Melbourne’s Los Barbudos – a Cuban baseball-themed bar owned by the Thank You Come Again Group (TYCAG) – and was sponsored by Bacardi, with the inspiration coming from a similar event held in the UK.
“Seeing the success of the event in London whilst I was working at Quo Vadis and Experimental Cocktail Club, upon my return to Melbourne I saw an opportunity to create a version here in Australia. It’s a great way of linking bartenders and crossing bridges,” said TYCAG’s Callan Green.
Fellow TYCAG managers Lachlan McAllister and Tom Ambroz, alongside Bacardi brand ambassador, Chanel Liquori, are credited with working hard to help organise the event and ensure it was a success.
Local bartenders were divided into teams representing the area they work in – Northside, Southside and City, with a Wildcard team also added to the mix. The Northside and City teams met in the finals (after beating the Southside and Wildcard teams respectively).
The City team emerged victorious, and while there were no major prizes for the victors, they can now claim bragging rights over their fellow Melbourne bartending peers and call themselves “Champions of the Universe”.
“Hopefully there'll be more events like this in the future, it’s a big ask to get bartenders to expose themselves to sun and partake in sports but a few events a year would be wonderful,” said Green.