The Main Nue Elite Pro par Equipe (pairs) Championnat de France A and B competition is sponsored by the Federation Francaise de Pelote Basque (FFPB). The competition began on March 3, 2017 and ends on May 7, 2017. You can follow its progress here (link to "resultats" from the FFPB home page). Pelotelive.free.fr also provides A and B coverage. The tournaments have a "poule" phase, a single round robin, followed by a playoff system which is so byzantine that I will make no attempt to explain it because I can't. It is the most complex playoff system I have seen in my short time following these fascinating BP tournaments. Go to the FFPB site listed above and read P. 3 of the "resultats" booklet. See how clear it is to you. For now, we will just follow along and deal with the playoff system when we get to it.
* not listed on the Esku Pilota player pages at this time.
Groupe A
Peio Larralde-Bixintxo Bilbao; Agusti Waltary-Peio Guichandut; Mathieu Ospital-Baptiste Ducassou; Julien Etchegaray-Vincent Lazcano; Alexis Inchauspe-Anton Amulet; Philippe Bielle-Ximun Lambert
Groupe B:
Laurent.Lambert-Mickael Palomes; Vincent Elgart-Pascal de Ezcurra; Mattin Olcomendy*-Jean-Philippe Bennesse, Antton Monce-Cedric Lucu
Source for all match articles, unless otherwise specifically stated, is pilota-ttiki.com. Thus far, most Pilota Ttiki match articles are incorporated into the Pelotelive.free.fr match pages. I will link to them, for ease of access when they are.
Week 1: March 3-4, 2017 ; Week 2: March 12-13; Week 3: March 18-19 ; Week 4: March 25, 27, 2017
Week5: April 1-2, 2017
April 1, 2017
Saint Pee sur Nivelle (1)(2)
Preview article for both matches
A11: Ospital-Ducassou defeated Larralde-Migueltorena (substituting for Bilbao) 40-30
Selected linescore (winners always listed 1st) (source: Pilota Ttiki)
2-8; 10-10; 12-12; 20-16; 33-23; 35-30; 40-30
B5: L. Lambert-Palomes defeated Elgart-de Ezcurra 40-35
Selected linescore (winners always listed 1st) (source: Pilota Ttiki and Esku Pilota match stories)
10-8; 10-10; 20-15; 22-22; 22-29; 25-30; 30-30; 38-32; 40-35
Match article for both matches
Match article for both matches (Esku Pilota)
Just like last week, O-D got off to a poor start. At the end of the 1st decade they were down by exactly the same score as they were in last week's match v Waltary-Guichandut. In this match they equalized at 12 and then went on a 21-11 run to seemingly put the match out of reach. But L-M fought back with a 7-2 run of their own before O-D scored the last 5 points of the match to win. What was concerning about this match was that Bilbao was out with an achilles heel injury. Theoretically it should have been easier than this for O-D. O-D's slow starts need to be addressed, as Ospital admitted in an interview after the match. All that said, only Inchauspe-Amulet stand in their way of a perfect poule record. This was Ducassou's 9th consecutive victory in 2017.
The linescore of the Groupe B match tells an intriguing story and hints at what a an exciting match it was. Ahead at the half-way mark, L-P were suddenly caught and passed by a 9-2 run by E-E that included 7 consecutive points. L-P then completely turned the tables with a 16-3 run of their own that decided the issue. The win finished a perfect 3-0 poule phase for L-P and put them into a knock-out match against the final qualifier from Groupe A.
April 2, 2017
Irissarry (1)(2)
Preview article for both matches
A12: Inchauspe-Amulet defeated Etchegaray-Lazcano 40-24
Selected linescore (winners always listed 1st)
10-5; 20-15; 30-16; 40-24
B4: Olcomendy-Benesse defeated Monce-Lucu 40-39
Salient match linescore statistics. Though no linescore appeared in the match article, it did mention that there were 15 equalities throughout the match.
Match article for both matches: Note: at the bottom of the match article there is a final table for the B Groupe.
Both of these matches were, in essence, knockout matches. The loser of one and the winner of the other were eliminated from the competition in that group. As I-A hit each decade mark,they maintained or increased their lead. Their road to the next phase gets more difficult as they must defeat Ospital-Ducassou to have any chance. O-B won their final match, which was the best match of the weekend in terms of suspense. Even with their win, they were eliminated due to point differential.
Full A table at the end of play April 2
Final B Table
Final B Table (Pilota Ttiki) Final table is at the bottom of the article.
For cumulative records of Main Nue elite professionals see the "Cumulative records of EP players" on the recurring results page on the right side of the blog.
