Binakako Txapelketako/Campionato Parejas, the premier doubles competition of the 2016-2017 Mano season, began December 2, 2016. 8 teams compete for the title. The first (league) phase is a double round robin (14 matches). The top 4 finishers will then face off in a single round robin (3 matches). The two winners will play in a final on April 9, 2017.
Asegarce Competition Page
Asegarce League phase table
ASPE League phase table
Wikipedia Competition Page (Castilian)
Full ongoing league phase table (with total points and differential):
Source for all match articles, unless otherwise specifically stated, is 21iguales.com 21iguales.com will also keep an ongoing phase table at its main Parejas site and with every match article.
Match linescores will be provided from match articles when available. Full match linescores can be found at 21iguales.com Twitter feed. Track back to the date and match and follow from beginning to en The feed is also available at the Main site of 21iguales.com while the matches are in progress.
Source for all highlights and full match videos, unless otherwise specifically stated, is EITB.
Week 1; Week 2; Week 3; Week 4; Week 5; Week 6; Week 7; Week 8 ; Week 9 ; Week 10; Week 11; Week 12; Week 13; Week 14--End of the Quarter-final League phase; Semi-Final League--Jornada 1; Semi-Final League--Jornada 2
Table of the 4 teams that advance to the Semi-final League.
Key: Team, match record, point differential, winning-losing streak going into the Semi-final League.
Irribarria-Rezusta: 12-2, +79, +5
Elezkano-Zabeleta 7-7, +41 +1
Oliazola II-Untoria 7-7, +10 +2
Bengoetxea VI-Larunbe 7-7 -12, -1
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Semi-Final League--Jornada 3
March 25, 2017
Labrit, Iruna (Pamplona) (1)(2): Bengoetxea VI-Larunbe defeated Jaka (substituting for Elezkano II)-Zabaleta 22-17
B-L 2-1 +1 E-Z 0-3 -19
Match articles (analysis and/or linescores and statistics)
21iguales.com
Deia
Diario Vasco
EITB Interview with Danel Elezkano regarding his hand injury
This match was similar to B-L's victory over Olaizola II-Untoria in the first semi-final match 2 weeks ago. Again, Bengoetxea VI took a long time to "come to the party." But when he did, basically taking over the second half of the match, J-Z had no chance. They needed to hold B-L to under 11 points in order to have any chance at a finals berth. Once B-L reached that total, J-Z completely collapsed. Jaka, who substituted for the injured Elezkano II (see the above interview to see the hand injury), also was beaten up in this match. He ran his shoulder into the left wall twice (one of those collisions can be seen in the match highlights) and hit if full on once. He finished the match. His team was finished for this competition. All in all 10-16 became 22-17. And Bengoetxea VI finished with +15. On April 9, 2017, B-L will meet Irribarria-Rezusta for the championship. This will be their fourth meeting. B-L have won two, but I-R won convincingly in last week's Semi-Final League match.
Match highlights
Full match video (EITB--Basque) (match begins at 38 minutes 45 seconds on the video.
Full match video (fronton.tv--Castilian) (Scroll to "Labrit-Pamplona - 25/03/2017")
March 26, 2017
Bizkaia, Bilbo (Bilbao) (1)(2): Irribarria-Rezusta defeated Olaizola II-Untoria 22-18
I-R 3-0 +19 O-U 1-2 -1
Match articles (analysis and/or linescores and statistics):
21iguales.com
Deia
mundodeportivo.com
I-R needed to score 11 points to guarantee a place in the final. They set about achieving that goal relentlessly, scoring the first 5 points of the match and reaching their goal with an 11-3 lead. The only road to the final for O-U was to win the match. Down 17-11 and led by brilliant play by Oliazola II, O-U stormed back into the match with a 7-0 run. Serving with all the momentum and 4 points away from an improbable victory, the next point was epic. It consumed 45 balls in play and lasted 2 minutes (1:57:00--1:59:00 on the video). On the 25th ball of the rally (1:57:59), Olaizola II had an easy dejada down the left side because Irribarria was off the court from his retrieval of the previous ball and Rezusta, though coming up, was still behind the four line and far from the left wall. Whether Oliazola II wasn't aware of where his opponents were or had already committed to a different shot, the shot he chose was high and almost exactly to where Rezusta was standing. The point then went on for another 20 balls before an attempted cross court shot by Olaizola II went off the court. 19-17 became 18-18 and, more importantly, the serve and the ball were lost. I-R closed the match out from there, helped by two more Olaizola II errors of aggression. Of course, without his stellar play earlier, O-U would never have come close to pulling off such a great victory. The last 12 points of the match were scintillating.
Match Highlights
Match highlights (21iguales.com) (parts of 18 points, including the final point)
Full match video (match begins at 1:06:56 on the video)
