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 that is explained below. It turns out not to be quite as byzantine as I thought. :) It is a very interesting way to re-seed a tournament in mid-stream. The B knockout phase (see below) looks to be a very interesting proposition. The A phase could provide a surprise or two as well.
* 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
Week 6: April 7, 10 2017
April 7, 2017
Pau (1)(2)
Preview article
A13: Larralde-Bilbao defeated Waltary-Guichandut 40-31
Condensed linescore (winners always listed 1st) (source: the two match videos)
4-0; 4-1; 6-1; 6-2; 7-2; 7-8; 9-8; 9-9; 10-9; 10-13; 11-13; 11-17; 12-17; 12-18; 20-18; 20-19; 21-19; 21-20; 22-20; 22-21; 23-21; 23-25; 30-25; 30-26; 35-26; 35-28; 36-28; 36-30; 38-30; 38-31; 40-31 (condensed linescore replaces selected linescore given at match article--change made Apr. 15, 2017).
Match article with link to condensed full match video
This video also available at Bixintxo Bilbao Youtube Page and at Tout sur la Pelote Basque Youtube (TPB is mostly condensed, there are a few points missing. Camera angle is different and the score is called out on almost every point). (TPB link added April 15, 2017).
Bilbao returned from achilles tendon tendonitis that kept him out of last weeks match against Ospital-Ducassou. This match was very close through 25-25. Indeed, in the early part of the match W-G were dominating. Once the two teams reached equality at 25, Larralde took over. He overwhelmed W-G with 8 service aces, including 3 in a row that completely defeated Guichandut and pretty much put the match out of reach at 35-26. L-B finish the Poule phase in 2nd place in the A Groupe with a 4-1 record, their only defeat coming at the hands of Ospital-Ducassou. Waltary-Guichandut finished 4th at 2-3. They will face B Groupe winners L. Lambert-Palomes in a "Barrage" match on April 14. The winner moves on to the Semi-finals of the A Groupe. The loser moves on to the Semi-finals of the B Groupe.
April 10, 2017
Le Garat, Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port (1!)(2)
Preview article for both matches
A14: Ospital-Ducassou defeated Inchauspe-Amulet 40-15
Selected linescore (Garat Lundi "remarkable points") (winners always listed 1st).
3-1; 5-1; 16-5; 17-5; 20-9; 37-13
Selected match statistics (Jean Baptiste Garat)
Service aces: Ospital 3 Inchauspe 2
Filet points: O-D 6 I-A 1
Time of the match: 57 minutes
A15: Bielle-X. Lambert defeated Etchegaray-Lazcano 40-31
Selected linescore (Garat Lundi "remarkable points") (winners always listed 1st)
11-3; 13-6; 20-9; 23-14; 25-14; 32-18
Selected match statistics (Jean Baptiste Garat)
Service aces: Bielle 13 Etchegaray 7
Filet points: B-L 4 E-l 5
Time of the match: 1 hour 24 minutes
Match article for both matches
The match article did not discuss the specifics either match, but spent most of its time going through the thickets of the matchups for the knockout stage of the tournament. Le Garat Lundi page was succinct in its match analysis:
O-A v I-A
Domination des favoris Ospital et Ducassou
Inchauspe et Amulet ont laissé trop d'espaces à leurs adversaires.
Google English translation:
Domination of favorites Ospital and Ducassou
Inchauspe and Amulet have left too many spaces for their opponents.
B-L v E-L
Belle empoignade, Bielle et X. Lambert ont dominé.
Merci à Etchegaray et Lazcano pour le beau final!
Google English translation:
Nice punching, Bielle and X. Lambert dominated.
Thanks to Etchegaray and Lazcano for the beautiful finale!
O-D finished a perfect 5-0 in the Poule phase. This was Ducassou's 10th consecutive victory overall in 2017 . Ospital-Ducassou await the winner of the Barrage match between Group B winner L. Lambert-Palomes and Group A 4th place finishers Waltary-Guichandut. I-A finished 1-4, 5th in Poule A, and will become the 2nd place Semi-finalists in Group B. Their first knockout match will be against actual 2nd place Groupe B finisher but now moved to "3rd place" Elgart-de Ezcurra.
B-L had a more difficult time of it, but won comfortably to finish in 3rd place in Groupe A with a 3-2 record. They have won 3 in a row and could be dangerous in the knockout stage. Their Semi-final opponents will be Larralde-Bilbao, 2nd place finisher in Groupe A. E-L finished at the foot of the Poule A table and have been eliminated.
Final Poule Tables: (Source Pilota Ttiki and Pelotelive.free.fr)
Key: Team; wins-defeats; point differential (actual points scored is available from the Pelotelive.free.fr tournament links above).
Poule A
Ospital-Ducassou.......5-0...63
Larralde-Bilbao..........4-1...53
Bielle-X. Lambert......3-2...25
Waltary-Guichandut...2-3....-5
Inchauspe-Amulet......1-4...-61
Etchegary--Lazcano...0-5...-75
All Semi-finals will be played April 21-22, 2017 at Anglet and Saint Jean Pied de Port respectively. An A and B Semi-final will be played at each venue. Who will be playing when and where is undetermined at present.
A Semi-finals
Ospital-Ducassou v winner of Barrage (play-in) match between Waltary-Guichandut and Groupe B winner L. Lambert-Palomes (to be played at Arcangues April 14).
Larralde-Bilbao v Bielle-X. Lambert.
Poule B
L. Lambert-Palomes.......3-0...16
Elgart-De Ezcurra...........1-2...13
Monce-Lucu....................1-2...-6
Olcomendy-Benesse........1-2..-23
Loser of L. Lambert-Palomes v Groupe A 4th place finisher Waltary-Guichandut match v Monce-Lucu
Inchauspe-Amulet (5th place finisher in Group A) v Elgart-De Ezcurra
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.
For match videos of other FFPB CdF matches see the FFPB CdF 2016-17 National A and B Videos page on the right side of the blog. Four of Larrald-Bilbao's Poule matches (condensed full match videos, about 1/2 hour apiece) are available.
