The Players:
Player Profiles at Esku Pilota
Group A: Peio Larralde (front); Matthieu Ospital (front); Baptiste Ducassou (back); Bixinto Bilbao (back); Augusti Waltery (front); Ximun Lambert (back); Peio Guichandut (back); Vincent Elgart (front); Julien Etchegary (front); Ion Iturbe (back); and Anton Monce (front)
Last year's finalists: Larralde and Ospital have been directly seeded into the League phase (1st and 2nd seeds)
Group B: Pascal de Ezcurra (back); Laurent Lambert (front); Alexis Inchauspe (front); Mickael Palomes (back); Gregory Aguirre (front); Cedric Lucu (back); Bixente (Vincent) Cubiat (back); Mattin Olcomendy (front); Mickael Darmendrail (front)
de Ezcurra and Lambert have been directly seeded into the League phase (1st and 2nd seeds)
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Previous Championships:
Complete coverage of the 2018 Championship was provided by FFPB:
Results
Brief Match Articles and Photos
More detailed articles and selected match videos were provided by Pilota Ttiki. When videos are available they are linked at the bottom of the article.
Beginning January 9 and "suivant" at the bottom of the article until you reach other tournament articles. The tournament ended on February 25 (A) and February 27 (B) (Note that not all articles you will link to are articles about this tournament).
Twenty 2018 FFPB Championnat de France Elite Pro condensed full match videos are available via Pilota Ttiki Youtube. Scroll to or find "Championnat Individuel" or "Liguilla" (without the quotes).
Finals:
Group A: Larralde 40 Ospital 18
Match article and link to full match video
Group B: Iturbe 40 L. Lambert 27
Match article and link to full match video
2017 Tournament complete coverage (match articles and available videos)
Finals:
Group A: Ducassou 40 Ospital 27
Group B: Etchegaray 40 Elgart 21
2016 Full Tournament Results: Final: Larralde 40 Ducassou 22
2015 Full Tournament Results: Final Ducassou 40 Larralde 21 (pelotelive.free.fr)
Play in Round (January 4-7, 2019) Qualification Round Seeded Matches (January 12-14); January 19; January 26;
Liguilla: February 2; February 3; February 9; February 11; February 15, February 17
Finals: February 25--Group B; March 3--Group A
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Note: All match videos, unless otherwise specifically stated, are condensed full match videos (usually between 15 and 40 minutes).
January 19, 2019
Arcangues (1)(2)
Group A
X. Lambert (back) 40 Guichandut (back) 37 (Pilota Ttiki Youtube)
Selected linescore (winner always listed first)
11-6; 21-6; 26-16; 31-22; 34-34; 35-35; 40-37
35-35
Lambert was a great shot maker at the beginning of this match and jumped out to a huge 15 point lead at mid-match. From there Guichandut took over with a 29-14 run to reach equality. But, as often happens, the energy used up in the comeback was exhausting and an error by Guichandut led to a 5-2 finish and victory for Lambert. He now faces Baptiste Ducassou, the best player in the modality at the moment. It should be an interesting confrontation between two back court players. Lambert has no illusions. :
“Mon objectif c’était de bien figurer encore en tête à tête. Je crois qu’en gagnant contre Peio j’ai fait mon job. Contre Baptiste, vu la forme qu’il a en ce moment, ça va être compliqué."
Loosely translated (by Google):
"My goal was to still be in the Tournament. I think that by winning against Peio I did my job. Against Baptiste, given the form he has right now, it's going to be complicated. "
Group B
Palomes (back) 40 Aguirre (front) 31 (Pilota Ttiki Youtube)
Selected linescore: (winner always listed first)
25-25: 40-31
The game was very close, according to the match article, until the last decade, when Palomes took it over.
Match article for both matches (Pilota Ttiki)
Match article for both matches (FFPB)
Group B: Back 1-1; Front 1-1
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The next Qualification matches will take place January 25, 2019 at Arcangues
Group A:
Waltery (front) v Bilbao (back) (seeded in at this point)
X. Lambert (b) v Ducassou (b) (seeded in at this point)
