First Comp Judged: My Experience - Long, No Pron

[QansasjayhawQ]

I have had different judges tell me a baby back rib will always outscore a spare, thighs over breast, pulled pork over sliced. I am always amazed that people have such closed minds when it comes to judging.

I have had different judges tell me a baby back rib will always outscore a spare, thighs over breast, pulled pork over sliced. I am always amazed that people have such closed minds when it comes to judging.

Sounds like rookie judges to me -

I would say that, if the people with those preconceived notions are KCBS certified judges that they need to take the judging class again. There's no way an experienced certified judge would make that statement because we read the rules and do our best to apply them fairly and consistently. Each of those styles of meat are legal entries and should each be judged on their own merits.

At least I can tell you that not all judges have that problem . . .

 

[Arlin_MacRae]

I have bolded one sentence. Please refer to it. Let's just say you tasted the first entry and said, man this is pretty good. 8 or could be a 9. No I better wait, because the next entry might be a 9. Really??? Really? I hope you don't make this mistake again. If it is a 9 score it so. If not don't What if all of the rest of the entries are not up to par. Did you just screw over the first entry? Resisted giving a 9 just in case something better comes along. Is that comparing or hoping to compare one against another. Be honest to yourself and judge each entry on it's own merits. You'd like to know how the 999 turned out and if you helped them get a GC. Would you like to know how the 8 that might of been a 9 but you held back, turned out and know if you kept them from a GC? Did you do this on the first entry in every category? I hope not. Granted, not every entry is going to be great, but when in doubt, are you going to grade up or down? Do you want to be the East German judge or labeled as the rogue judge?

Sorry for the rant

It wasn't a mistake. I did the right thing because they're were better ribs that came along and giving that 'iffy' box a nine would have diluted the score for the better box. Being a rookie judge I'm still learning what a flat-out nine box is, and the only way to learn that is to see a lot of them. I wasn't sure this was a nine, so I gave it an eight. I learned more what a nine was a couple of boxes later. Someone would have gotten the eight, someone a nine. I guessed because that was all I could do. I was right.

Sorry for the correction.

Arlin

 

[Bentley]

If you go into every contest with the attitude you just wrote about, you are the kind of CBJ I want judging my turn-ins, even after one contest!

 

[Fat Woody]

Well said, Augustus! It's good to see the view from the other side of the table, so to speak. Hope you'll keep posting about your (& Jean's) experiences as you go from rookies to seasoned vets in the judging tent. I would be very interested to see a running commentary from you'se guys as you get deeper into the judging realm.

 

[Arlin_MacRae]

Well said, Augustus! It's good to see the view from the other side of the table, so to speak. Hope you'll keep posting about your (& Jean's) experiences as you go from rookies to seasoned vets in the judging tent. I would be very interested to see a running commentary from you'se guys as you get deeper into the judging realm.

Thank you, Woodrow!
I can do that. What I don't want to do is give a blow-by-blow after each comp. That could get ugly.