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TEAM TALK
Every issue of UK BBQ Mag we like to give one of the growing number of UK BBQ teams a chance to tell us about what they do, and who they are, this Issue it's Tony Northover aka McSlims.
So I joined mcslims in 2015 and my 1st comp was at Manchester grillstock which we won, this win got me hooked, I was part of a 4 man team which worked together, but early last year everything changed and we from 4 to 2 and after a couple more comps I found myself doing it all alone and if I’m honest I found going to comps relaxing as I was working all day and ran a pub as well in south east London.
Winning Tony Stones last year was a massive shock but once again got everyone looking at this 1 man BBQ team which was good and after competing in 14 comps last year and doing 8 alone I finished 7th in Europe over all and was 1st in ribs in the EBCC (European cup) so was a fantastic year for me.
This year had started ok I was there or there about then won the 1st comp in Scotland and ended up in the river for it, I was at beer fries for my first ever double which happened to fall on my birthday so day 1 I was happy with 1st place chicken and 8th overall but day 2 just made me realise how hard it is to be consistent as I finished mid way out of 57 teams, then took that onto Tony stones where it was the 1st time i haven’t even got a call in anything and finished 25th over all, and when this happens you just want to get to your next comp and get back to doing well and I did that at brew & Q last weekend where I finished back in the top 10 but this was after competing in 7 comps over 5 weeks which took it completely out of me but on a good note I’m off to the American royal for the 1st time in September to compete against 700 teams from around the world and once again I’ll be doing it alone. But before all that I’ve got the cream of the crop of comps which is the best 15 team at the end of year in KCBS in Europe to compete for 9000 euros at prime uve in Italy at the end of the month.
Here's a few tips for new teams,
1- everyone thinks they can cook bbq but take a bbq class from someone who’s been doing comps for a while you will learn so much and also a back garden class is also a good one to take.
2- don’t get sucked into buying all different bbq’s or smokers, a drum, smokey mountain or proQ excel is good enough to start with (unless you’ve got money to burn lol)