The 2016-17 professional Mano season began on October 7, 2016 with the first round of the Lau eta erdiko Txapelketa 2016/Campeonato del 4 1/2 de 1a categoría 2016 LEP. M competition. The quarterfinal league competition began Oct. 14-16, 2016.
Asegarce Competition Page
The competition has 12 players, in two groups. The opening round of four preliminary matches took place October 7-10, 2016. The four winners (two in each group) move on to a quarter final league, where they join four other seeded players (Urrutikoetxea and Altuna III in Gourp A, Oliazola II and Bengoetxea VI in Group B) in a single round robin quarter-final league. The 1st place finishers in each group will then face the 2nd place finishers in the other group in the semi-finals. Semi-final winners will play in the final on November 27, 2016.
Note: Source for all match articles, unless otherwise specifically stated is 21iquales.com.
Source for all match video, unless otherwise specifically stated, is EITB.
Quarterfinal league first round: Note: Current group tables are available at the main 21iguales.com site above, as well as at all match articles. The winners of the first round play against each other in the second round. The losers also play each other.
Group A:
October 15, 2016
Etchebarry (1) (2): Irribarria defeated Victor 22-14
Match article
Match article (including match statistics and linescore) (Diario Vasco)
Irribaria only had to make one big comeback in this match, from 4-9. A 7 point run took him to an 11-9 lead. After falling behind again 12-14, he then won the match with a 10-0 run that included 5 service aces.
Match highlights (The IvV highlights begin at 1 minute, 1 second on the video).
October 16, 2016
Astelena Fronton, Eibar (1) (2): Urrutikoetxea defeated Altuna III 22-7
Match article:
Urrutikoetxea began his title defense with an emphatic victory over Altuna III. He was aided by 8 Altuna III errors.
Match highlights
Full match video (match begins at 36:06 on the video).
Group B:
October 14, 2016
Burunda Fronton, Altsasu (Alsasua) (1) (2) (3) Ezkurdia defeated Retegi Bi 22-11
Match article:
Retegi Bi scored the first point of the match. It was his only lead as Ezkurdia scored the next 6 and pulled away from there. 8 Retegi Bi errors aided Ezkuria in the easy victory.
Match highlights
Full match video (fronton.tv) (Scroll to Retegi Bi v Ezkurdia, Alsasua 7/10/2016. Note that the date is incorrect at fronton.tv at present. However you will always be able to find the match by scrolling to the players names or venue. The match is on P. 1 at present. It will move too lower pages eventually. Scroll until you find it.
October 15, 2016
Labrit Fronton, Iruna (Pamplona) (1) (2) Oliazola II defeated Bengoetxea VI 22-19
Match article:
In the most competitive and hard fought match of the round (272 balls in play) Oliazola II came back from deficits of 3-7, 4-8, 11-15, 14-16, and 16-18 to win. He was helped by 10 Bengoetxea VI errors.
Match highlights
Full match video (Match begins at 27:44 on the video).
