# First competition in the books.  Finished dead in the middle.



## capndonkey (Apr 22, 2013)

Well, Swillin' & Grillin' BBQ finished 54th out of 108 teams. Not bad, but not good. Dead middle of the road. Got high appearance scores on all 4 boxes, and that was encouraging. Now, we need to tweak our flavor and tenderness to really amp up our scores.  Took a lot of notes, and we've been pouring over the stats sheet we got after the awards were handed out.

Here's how we did:

Chicken (75th place, it was a little over done)

Ribs (37th place)

Pulled Pork (21st place, almost cracked top 20)

Brisket (56th place, also a little over cooked)

I think we might still be adding a little too much heat to our rub and sauces. We are going to be in Annapolis, MD on May 4th and 5th for the Naptown BarBayQ, and we're going to try to go sweeter and see how we do. We like where we're at as far as blind box presentation purposes.

Despite a hurricane that came through on Friday night and lasted well into Saturday morning, we had a blast.  Good people, good times, and lots of positive feedback.  We even met George Hensler, author of "Startin the Fire", a must read for those wishing to get into the bbq competition circuit.  He autographed our book for my teammate and I.


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## kathrynn (Apr 22, 2013)

Congrats on getting to go and having fun!  Critiques do help to learn which way to go next.  I am getting to help with the WhistleStop Comp here in a few weeks.  I am stoked!

Kat


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## bruno994 (Apr 22, 2013)

Top half of the field at Pork in the Park, well done sir...I'm sure you're completely hooked now if you weren't before.  Congrats and best of luck in 2 weeks.


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## bbqbrett (Apr 22, 2013)

Wow, pretty good for the first comp and that many competitors.  Hope you had a lot of fun!


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