Cook-off winners named after weekend competition
By Kathy Thomson
The fifth annual Fort Griffin BBQ Cook-off “Battle for the Blade & World Championship Dove Competition” took place last weekend, and winners were declared in several categories, as well as the overall champion.
Tommy Smith, who headed up the team known as Bent Nail BBQ, was declared the overall winner and was presented the 2019 fifth generation “Blade of Fort Griffin” on Saturday afternoon after all the judging was completed.
Organizers said they were happy with the quality of the competition, but disappointed by an unexpectedly low number of entries.
“We had a very low turnout for a $19,000 guaranteed event,” said one of the organizers, Justin Winters. “The Fort Griffin BBQ date has stayed the same (it is always on the last weekend in September), but there were other large guaranteed payout events that changed their event date to our weekend this year. That took hundreds of teams from potentially attending our event.”
According to Winters, the International Barbeque Cookers Association (IBCA) is looking into the possibility of coordinating dates with all large guaranteed payout events to attempt to avoid the same scenario happening again.
“The cook-off itself went great,” said Winters. “The Fort brought in a little over $1,000 (in gate fees) on Saturday. The cooks had a great time, and the competition was very stout.”
Included among the 34 teams that competed at Fort Griffin last weekend were three cooks that are currently in the top 10 of the over 1,500 cooks competing in the IBCA for 2019 year end awards, and another four that are in the top 25.
“Overall, the event went great, and a huge success in our eyes was showing the site and sharing the history to everyone who came out and those who tuned in on the Fort Worth radio station,” said Winters.
He added that it is likely that many in the radio audience had never heard of Fort Griffin before the cook-off.
Judging
The Cook’s Meeting took place on Friday evening, and all of the judging took place on Saturday.
Once again the judging was done by volunteer spectators.
Winters said that unlike previous events, this time they always had plenty of judges.
“We would like to thank everyone that came out, our sponsors, and community contributors for supporting the event again this year,” said Winters. “The Fort Griffin BBQ was able to shake things up and create positive changes for the sport of competition BBQ within IBCA, possibly standardizing guaranteed payouts as well as coordinating those events to never take place on the same weekend.”
Winters was asked if the Battle for the Blade will be held again next year.
“Only time will tell,” he said. “It is now up to IBCA to make their moves. But we are keeping our fingers crossed for not only the sake of these events and their promoters, but the cooks who are competing in them as well.”
Top Overall Winners
Tommy Smith, head cook for Bent Nail BBQ, took home the grand champion trophy in the “Battle for the Blade.” Smith won first place in Brisket, as well as second in both Chicken and in Pork Spare Ribs to garner the overall title and earn the hand-forged trophy knife made by Mike Whitmore and the title of “2019 Winner of the Battle of the Blade.”
Reserve grand champion went to Aaron Lesley with Texas Oil Dust after the team placed second in Brisket, eighth in Chicken, and fourth in Pork Spare Ribs.
First place in Chicken was claimed by Angie Pruett and her team, the Grillin’ Granny.
Winning Pork Spare Ribs was Dino Anest and the Angry Greek BBQ team.
Chad Keesee and the Beer Driven BBQ team won the Dove World Championship.
Carey Taylor and the Red Dirt Steak & BBQ 2 sizzled their way to victory in the Steak division.
Winners List
Overall: Grand Champion – Tommy Smith, Reserve Champion – Aaron Lesley, 3. Danny Luera, 4. Greg Phillips, 5. Kirk Filipp, 6. Angie Pruett, 7. Kit Polk, 8. Dino Anest, 9. Clinton Ullmann, 10. Paul Whitaker
Brisket: 1. Tommy Smith, 2. Aaron Lesley, 3. Kirk Filipp, 4. Clinton Ullmann, 5. Cale Hoch, 6. Danny Luera, 7. Kit Polk, 8. Steve Carrigan, 9. Bennie Koger, 10. Randy Burkhart
Chicken: 1. Angie Pruett, 2. Tommy Smith, 3. Greg Phillips, 4. Paul Whitaker, 5. Danny Luera, 6. Kirk Filipp, 7. Bennie Koger, 8, Aaron Lesley, 9. Justin Wood, 10. Steve Carrigan
Pork Spare Ribs: 1. Dino Anest, 2. Tommy Smith, 3. Greg Phillips, 4. Aaron Lesley, 5. Kit Polk, 6. Danny Luera, 7. David Whitaker, 8. Angie Pruett, 9. Steve Carrigan, 10. Randy Burkhart
Dove: 1. Chad Keesee, 2. John Hargrave, 3. Gene Pruett, 4. Paul Whitaker, 5. Dino Anest, 6. Aaron Lesley, 7. Jeff Bezner, 8. Wayne Jowers, 9. Steve Carrigan, 10. Owen Miller
Steak: 1. Carey Taylor - team 2, 2. Tommy Smith, 3. Carey Taylor - team 1, 4. Chris Brannon, 5. Dino Anest, 6. Aaron Lesley, 7. Wayne Jowers, 8. Unclaimed, 9. Unclaimed, 10. Jeff Bezner
