Main Nue: FFPB CDC Elite Pro par Equipe begins

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.

March 3-4, 2017

March 3

Arcangues (1) (2)

A1: Larralde-Bilbao defeated Bielle-Lambert 40-24
A2: Waltary-Guichandut defeated Inchauspe-Amulet 40-28

Match articles and link to full match video (source: Bixintxo Bilbao Youtube) are available at PFF. Note: if you link directly to the video from PFF rather than BB Youtube, make sure to "desactiver" the PFF auto refresh function used for live scoring, or the video will not work.

Both matches were close early, but a 10-1 run by L-B put the score at 20-9 and they cruised home from there. The second match was tied at 21 before a 7 point run put W-G in command. The L-B match video is excellent, a condensed full match video, with only the points filmed. It lasts little over 1/2 hour, and has the scoreboard in sight at all times. Unfortunately, that scoreboard flickered in and out throughout the match.

March 4

Mauleon, Anglet (1)(2)

Preview article (via PFF link)

A3: Ospital-Ducassou defeated Etchegaray-Lazcano 40-20

Match article

Match statistics (Esku Pilota spreadsheet)

This match also started off close, with equality at 14 and E-L still in it down 23-17. From that point, O-D put on a 17-3 run to assert their dominance.

Full table at the end of play March 4.

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 other match videos in other FFPB 2017 Championnat de France competitions see the FFPB CDF 2016-2017 National A and B match videos page on the right side of the blog