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 1st round quarterfinal league competition took place on Oct. 14-16, 2016. The second round was played on Oct. 21-23.
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 second 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 21, 2016
Atano III Fronton, Donostia (San Sebastian) (1) (2): Altuna III defeated Victor 22-19
Match article
For the second match in a row Victor couldn't hold on to a large lead. This was a more difficult defeat because he was seemingly in total control at 12-19. Then Altuna III closed the match out with 10 consecutive points. 9 errors contributed to Victor's defeat. He is still mathematically alive in the tournament, but he needs to defeat Urrutikoetxea and also have another match go his way to stay in the competition.
Match highlights
Full match video (match begins at 41 minutes 48 seconds on the video).
October 22, 2016
Bizkaia Fronton, Bilbo (Bilbao) (1) (2): Urrutikoetxea defeated Irribarria 22-11
Match article:
Two six point runs by this competition's defending champion guaranteed him a place in the semi-finals as he improved his record in the quarter-final league to 2-0 with an easy victory over Irribarria. Watch the match and you'll see a master at work, moving Irribarria all over the court. Urrutikoetxea was aided by 8 Irribarria errors.
Match highlights
Full match video (match begins at 1:18:48 on the video).
Group B:
October 22, 2016
Labrit Fronton, Iruna (Pamplona) (1) (2) Oliazola II defeated Ezkurdia 22-21
Match article:
In the best match of the tournament so far, Oliazola II came back from deficits of 13-17 and 16-21 to win by the minimum. It was his second comeback victory in a row and guaranteed him a place in the semi-finals. Earlier Ezkurdia had overcome deficits of 7-2 and 13-8 to put himself in a position to win. Sadly, full match video is unavailable. The match highlights do, however, show the last point, won by a typically brilliant Oliazola II cross court kill shot.
Match highlights (highlights of this match begin at 0:49 on the video)
October 23, 2016
Beotibar Fronton, Tolosa (1) (2) Bengoetxea VI defeated Retegi BI 22-8.
Match article:
For the second week in a row Retegi BI scored the first point of the match and then never came near the lead again. Two 6 point runs by Bengoetxea VI, along with 8 Retegi BI errors, sealed an easy win. Bengoetxea VI will now play Ezkurdia in the 3rd quarter-final league match to determine the 2nd semi-finalist from Group B.
Match highlights
Full match video (Match begins at 49:56 on the video).
