Hanover BBQ & Blues

The Hanover BBQ & Blues contest, which determines the Massachusetts state champion, is a cooker's event. Organized by NEBS officials who also compete, it is a very well run contest.

This year the event got off to plenty of excitement on Friday night as a warm front from the south and a cold front from the west collided over New England delivering torrential rains, flash flood warnings and high winds. A huge gust of wind around 8:00 PM demolished the judges tent and lifted The Wauxhatchie Stump Jumpers tent and canopy off the ground and over the tops of several other teams sites scattering it across the field beyond. It also blew down several other sites. Don Martin's site was so demolished he dropped out of the competition.

Fortunately, the rain stopped sometime after midnight and Saturday was a beautiful day with blue skies and temperatures in the 70's. We didn't win state champ but we did manage to take first place in two of the four categories, chicken and pork. This contest was also a lot of fun because we found out we were only 10 points behind The Yahoos for Team of the Year. The third place team was 50 points behind us. We were within spitting distance. More on that on the next page.

Grand Champions MA State Champions 1999 The Yahoos	Reserve Grand Champions Boss Hogg BBQ (Head cook Andy Husbands (right) who trained under Chris Schlesinger is the owner/chef at Boston Restaurant Tremont 647)
Team of the Year 1999 The Yahoos (Fourth year in a row!)
Liquid Smoke First Place Chicken First Place Pork
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