Binakako Txapelketako/Campionato Parejas, the premier doubles competition of the 2016-2017 Mano season, began December 2, 2016. 8 teams competed for the title. The first (league) phase was a double round robin (14 matches). The top 4 finishers will faced off in a single round robin (3 matches). The two winners played 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 ; Semi-Final League--Journada 3
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
===================================
April 9, 2017
Final
Bizkaia, Bilbo (Bilbao) (1)(2)
Irribarria-Rezusta defeated Bengoetxea VI-Larunbe 22-14
Full linescore: (winners always listed 1st)
0-1; 1-1; 1-2; 1-3; 2-3; 3-3; 4-3; 4-4; 4-5; 5-5; 5-6; 6-6; 7-6; 8-6; 9-6; 10-6; 11-6; 11-7; 12-7; 12-8; 12-9; 13-9; 13-10; 13-11; 13-12; 14-12; 15-12; 16-12; 16-13; 17-13; 18-13; 19-13; 20-13; 21-13; 21-14; 22-14
Scoring (EITB)
Irribarria +4 -4 Rezusta +0 -2
Bengoetxea VI +7 -3 Larunbe +1 -15
Balls in play: 442: Irribarria 106 Rezusta 119; Bengoetxea VI 84 Larunbe 133
Number of balls in play: Number of points (my counts)
0-9: 18
10-19: 13
20-29: 2
30-39: 1
40-49: 1
50+: 1
Longest point: 59 (13-11--13-12).
Match highlights
The final point
The champions celebrate with friends and family
Match highlights (21iguales.com) parts of 12 points including the final point.
Full match video (changed the link April 13, 2017 from the original EITB final link to EITB Finals link that only has the final match on it. It is also more likely to be archived at this link.
Full match video (Fronton.tv--Castilian) (Scroll to: "Bilbao - 09/04/2017"). Note: this is on the first page of videos at present. Eventually it will be moved to higher numbered pages when it has been moved. (Added April 19, 2017).
Match article including match statistics and linescore
Other match articles:
Deia
Diario Vasco
DV photo gallery (39 photos)
mundodiportivo.com
El Correo
Feature articles (from various points of view):
Deia: Botilleros (1)(2); Other: (1)(2)(3)
Diario Vasco: (1)
I-R capped a brilliant 16-2 Mundo Parejas with their 9th consecutive victory, easily defeating B-L, the only team that had beaten them, 22-14. You can read all the articles describing how I-R used a simple and brutal strategy: keep the ball away from the explosive Bengoetxea VI, who had great matches against Jaka-Zabaleta and Olaizola II-Untoria to get to this final. And the best way to keep Bengoetxea VI away from the ball was to make Larunbe hit it as often as possible. The balls in play breakdown by player is extremely instructive in demonstrating how this strategy was successfully executed. And finally, inevitably, like most of the other back court players who faced I-R in this competition, he cracked under the pressure, erring on I-R's last 5 points, for a total of anywhere from 11 to 15 errors, depending on the scoring source. Irribarria's relentless power and Rezusta's steady defensive presence (he won the "most valuable" player award for the tournament) were an unbeatable combination.
Even in defeat, no one can accuse B-L of anything short of tenacity. The final 3 points of a match they were behind by 7 points consumed, by my count, 21, 18, and 32 balls in play. However, for me the greatest symbol of I-R's domination of the entire competition came very early: from the point beginning at 1-1 to the point ending at 3-3 (1:14:05--1:18:11 on the video). The two point lead that B-L fought for 35 grueling balls in play to achieve was gone after 7 balls in play over the next two points.
For Irribarria the potential for greatness seems unlimited. Rezusta has now played in two consecutive finals (he played with Mtz. de Irujo last year), and seems to be the best back court player in professional Mano at the moment (because the one player that could contest that did not play in the back court in this competition). I-R will most likely be on different teams next year and it will be interesting to see how Rezusta handles the bombs that come from Irribarria's steam shovel of a left hand. In only 8 months, we will begin to find out.
