Chances of success at the bar?

The only question that really matters is this; are you going to finish your degree with a 2:1 or higher overall? If the answer is 'yes', all of the other issues become largely irrelevant. It may be that you get a question in interview as to why your law degree took four years rather than three, in which case you can provide a simple answer. But otherwise providing you tick the box of getting a 2:1 or higher in your degree, you are unlikely to encounter any issues arising from falling short of a 2:1 in your first year.

If the answer is 'no', the situation becomes a little more complicated. You may well be able to point towards extenuating circumstances, but the harsh reality is that whoever is reading your pupillage application will also have read countless others that boast a 2:1 without the need for extenuating circumstances. Your 2:2 therefore becomes something of an issue. Not, I will stress, as much of an issue as those that have a 2:2 without extenuating circumstances, but an issue nonetheless. If you end up with a 2:2 it may well be an idea to do a Masters to demonstrate the 'true' level of your intellectual ability, though in fairness your A-Level grades do that to some degree as well. But otherwise your application will have to stand out to the extent that it mitigates the '2:2' on your application form, and that is not an easy thing to do.

As regards your mini pupillage application, it may be that your 2:2 in your first year contributed to you not getting accepted. It may be that it played no part at all and the Chambers in question just had far too many applications. There's plenty of time for you to secure mini pupillages, and indeed you should look at approaching Chambers that don't have formal application processes and/or are likely to deal with a lower volume of applications (generally smaller/regional sets) as well as applying to larger sets.

Your reply has really made my day- thank you.

I think I will be able to het a high 2:1 and I will be making every effort to do so.

I have tried to reach out to as many chambers and am systematically applying, hopefully I'll be able to secure a mini soon and my ego might recover from the rejection- perhaps I need a thicker skin when applying.

Again, thanks for your reply.

This is almost certainly the case. Not that that is a judgment on you personally. One of the more common characteristics of students who want to be barristers is that they have no issue making it known how badly they want to be a barrister. The reality is that very few of those students have ever experienced genuine failure, and therefore most don't have any realistic grasp of what tenacity looks like when trying to become a barrister. The fact is that when those students have finished the bar course without pupillage and are unsure of what to do next, many of them ultimately fall away from the process.

Getting constant rejections, both for mini pupillages and pupillages, is hard. But it is something that you are probably going to have to learn to deal with to stand a realistic chance of becoming barrister. Just remember that statistically you're likely to be on the receiving end of a lot of rejections simply because the numbers are against you. It's not necessarily a judgment on your ability. Your focus should constantly be on what you can do to improve both your paper application and your experience/ability. If you do that you'll give yourself the best chance of standing out from the crowd, which ultimately is the route to getting an interview and then a pupillage offer.