DESPITE inclement weather making cooking conditions tough, competitors gave it their all in the first annual Spit In The Hills competition at Chidlow Tavern over the weekend.
More than 1000 visitors came to see 16 teams battle it out for Grand Champion status, with that honour going to the Perth BBQ School team, narrowly edging out Sandgroper BBQ, with Grill Sergeant Barbecue landing in third position.
Event organiser Fran Brewer said that while visitor numbers may have been down on her expectations, the online interest was tremendous.
“Over the weekend, our Facebook page had 38,000 individual hits, so there was a lot of people keeping an eye on the event,” she said.
“You can’t account for the weather but I was really happy that all 16 teams managed to plate up for the judges given the conditions.”
Spit In The Hills was licensed by the Kansas City Barbeque Society but the next BBQ event at the Tavern, the Chidlow BBQ Festival on September 14 and 15 will be officially sanctioned by the KCBS, the governing US body for BBQ competitions.
By Liam Ducey