This is a current awareness blog that links to the latest sources of information on Basque Pelota matches and Tournaments. It covers all of both North and South Basque modalities: Pro and amateur. It links to match stories, statistics and video highlights and/or full match videos. NEW!!! JAI ALAI LEAGUE (EREMAN!) SEASON INTRO AND JAI ALAI WOMEN'S WINTER TOUR 2024 (2/22/24)!!!

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Main Nue: FFPB CDC Elite Pro par Equipe--Week 3--March 18-19 2017

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

March 18, 2017

Garindein (1)(2)

Preview article for both matches

A7: Bielle-X. Lambert defeated Waltary-Guichandut 40-20

Match Statistics (scoring, equalities, decade linescores--spreadsheet format) (Source: Esku Pilota)

B1: L. Lambert-Palomes defeated Monce-Lucu 40-31

Match statistics (scoring, equalities, decade linescores--spreadsheet format) (Source: Esku Pilota)

Match article for both matches

Pilota-Ttiki articles had mentioned on more than one occasion that Bielle-Lambert could become a force in this tournament. They played well in a loss to Ospital-Ducassou last week and dominated  W-G in this match. They led 20-9 at mid-match, and slowly increased their lead. At 34-20 they shut out W-G for the rest of the match to seal the win with a flourish. The match scoring statistics reveal that Bielle (+12 -3) and X. Lambert (+9 -2) played an excellent match. Guichandut (+5 -12) had a poor day which, according to Philippe Bielle was the culmination of a well planned and executed strategy to keep Guichandut in an area that would be difficult. It will be interesting to see if other teams attempt to execute the same strategy.

In the first Groupe B match of the competition, L-P dominated early, scoring the 1st 12 points of the match, but then M-L fought back to get within 3 points in  the 6th decade. It is possible that the energy they expended getting back into the match spent them. They were outscored 10-4 to end the match. L. Lambert (+17 -6) had a very good match,  Lucu (+4 -13) a forgettable one.

March 19, 2017

Amendaritz (1)(2)

Preview article for both matches

A8: Larralde-Bilbao defeated Etchegaray-Lazcano 40-24

Condensed linescore (winners always listed 1st--source Bixinto Bilbao Youtube site).

3-0; 3-1; 10-1; 10-3; 16-3; 16-4; 19-4; 19-9; 20-9; 20-15; 25-15; 25-16; 27-16; 27-17; 28-17; 28-18; 30-18; 30-19; 31-19; 31-20; 32-20; 32-21; 36-21; 36-24; 40-24

B2: Elgart-de Ezcurra defeated Olcomendy-Benesse 40-18

Selected linescore:

20-10; 40-18

Match article for both matches along with a link to full match video for the L-B v E-L match..

L-B v E-L full match video can also be accessed directly via Bixintxo Bilbao's Youtube site. The match video is a condensed full match video, with only the points. It runs about 1/2 hour.
L-B broke out to a huge lead and the game seemed over and done with at the half way point. Larralde's excellent serve and precise shot making, as well as Bilbao's mobility (he seemed to be all over the court) built that lead. But then, seemingly out of nowhere, E-E had a 10-1 run  to put them back in contention. L-B responded with a 10-3 run of their own, and finished with a 9-4 run to win with ease. The win guarantees L-B a semi-final seed.

In the B Groupe Match, E-E were twice as good as their opponents in each half of the match.

Full A table at the end of play March 19

Full B table at the end of play March 19

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.