A CWMBRAN man has San Francisco in his sights after winning a UK national DJ competition - gaining in a place in the world finals 25 years after his last attempt at glory.

Miaer Lloyd has been a turntablist since the DJ heyday of the late 1980s and early 90s.

"I started in 1987," he explained.

Free Press Series: Maier Lloyd in 1998

Mr Lloyd, once known by the DJ name DJ Excel, now goes by Huw Wackman.

He is preparing for the world finals in the DMC World Championships - which are to be held in November in San Francisco, California.

"It's a very famous competition," Mr Lloyd explained.

"They’ve run a similar competition since 1985."

Prospective winners have to test their skills on the decks in the heats before even reaching the UK final.

Then they progress go on to the world championships.

"I’ve entered six times in the past," Mr Lloyd said.

"On Friday (August 11) I won the UK final for the first time."

Free Press Series: Maier Lloyd in 2023

Mr Lloyd said that down the years he had been featured in the Argus every time he competed.

However, there has been somewhat of a gap between his latest triumph and the last time he tested his skills - which was 25 years ago.

"I’m 52 now, the judge in the UK final this time around was the guy who beat me in 1998," he said.

Mr Lloyd managed to top the pile this time around, despite only having three weeks to prepare and not even owning his own turntables any more.

"I had to borrow some from Jamie Winchester at Play It Loud Studios," he said.

The world championships have, for the past few years, been held online.

However, Mr Lloyd explained that this year's event would be an in-person affair once again.

"There are 10 or 11 other DJs competing over the three-day event," he said.

Initially, the traditional prize for DMC World Champions was a pair of gold turntables.

However, Panasonic discontinued the production of their classic 1200 series turntables and so one-off gold mixers were instead used as the DMC World Championship prize.