The Main Nue
Individuel Elite Pro Championnat de France A and B competition is sponsored by the Federation Francaise de Pelote Basque (FFPB). The competition began on December 23, 2016 and will end on February 20, 2017. You can follow its progress here. Note: the "progress here" link has been changed to a (hopefully) persistent URL that covers the entire tournament. That link is now present in every MNIEP CDF post. (Added March 18, 2017).
Pelotelive.free.fr also provides A and B
coverage. The tournament is a seeded ladder tournament.
* not listed on the Esku Pilota player pages at this time.
The A group consists of Antton Amulet, Philippe Bielle, Bixintxo Bilbao, Pascal de Ezcurra, Baptiste Ducassou, Peio Guichandut, Ximun Lambert, Peio Larralde, Matheiu Ospital, and Agusti Waltary. The seeds, from low to high are: Amulet and Ospital (1/8), Bilbao and Waltary (Quarter-finals), and Larralde and Ducassou ("Liguilla").
The B group consists of Gregory Aguirre, Jean-Philippe Benesse*, Mickael Darmendrail, Vincent Elgart, Julien Etchegaray, Alexis Inchauspe, Laurent Lambert, Cedric Lucu, Alain Migueltorena, Antton Monce, Mattin Olcomendy*, and Mickael Palomes. The seeds, from low to high are: Darmendrail and L. Lambert (1/8), Palomes and Inchauspe (Quarter-finals), and Elgart and Monce ("Liguilla").
The "Liguilla" phase is a round robin among the top 4 finishers (two who win their way in and two who are seeded in) which will determine the finalists.
Article describing the competition (Esku Pilota)
Barriage (non-seeded play-in):
December 23, 2016:
Saint-Pee-sur-Nivelle (1) (2)
B1: Olcomendy defeated Lucu 40-18
December 30, 2016:
Arcangues (1) (2)
Background article (Pilota Ttiki)
B2: Aguirre defeated Olcomendy 40-35
A1: Guichandut defeated Bielle 40-25
Match article for both matches (Pilota Ttiki)
January 2, 2017
Le Garat, St. Jean-Pied-de-Port (1) (2)
B3: Benesse defeated Migueltorena via a forfeit.
In place of that match as a "lever de rideau" (curtain raiser) for the A2 match, Monce (seeded into the "liguilla" phase of the B tournament) played against Benesse instead.
Monce defeated Benesse 40-33
Note that Benesse was scheduled to play Darmendrail in the 1/8 level on January 9, 2017 at the Garat. Darmendrail has dropped out of the tournament due to a cyst operation. Benesse has been scheduled for another "lever de rideau" v Elgart (also seeded into the "liguilla phase of the B tournament) subject to confirmation. Benesse's next match in the tournament will be the Quarter-final v Palomes at the Garat on January 16. If all of this falls into place, Benesse could be playing a quarter final having already played both players seeded in at the "liguilla" level. See the above link to the FFPB results page to see how the liguilla works.
A2: de Ezcurra defeated X. Lambert 40-35
Match article for both matches (Pilota Ttiki)
Match statistics for A2 (Source: H. Ocafrain via Goizeko Izarra's "lundi" page). Note these statistics will only be available until the next "lundi" match. They were
Decade linescores and equalities (Ocafrain) interspersed with selected line scores provided by Pilota Ttiki (winner always listed 1st):
7-3; 13-7; 14-7; 14-14, 15-15, 17-17; 19-21; 20-22; 22-22 26-22; 26-24 26-26; 27-27; 32-28; 37-33; 40-35
Time of the match: 1 hour, 8 minutes. Actual playing time: 29 minutes
Scoring:
de Ezcurra +32 (8 service aces, 4 egindakoak, 1 xareat, 8 pumpa xare, 1 ziloat, 3 buruzgain, 2 motz, 5 izkin motz) -5
X. Lambert +30 (7 service aces, 10 egindakoak, 1 xareat, 2 pumpa xare, 3 dejadez, 1 motz, 6 izkin motz) -8
de Ezcurra had the initiative for most of the match, but Lambert kept fighting back. The last decade consisted of de Ezcurra protecting the small lead he had built earlier.
