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Sunday, March 3, 2019

Remonte--Sagardoaren Txapelketa (Tourneo Sidra) Begins--How it works, previous winners, Round 1-Week 1--February 28-March 2, 2019

The Sagardoaren Txapelketa/El Torneo de la Sidra/Cider Tournament began February 28, 2019 and will end with a final on May 4, 2019. 

The  Sagardoaren Txapelketa IX features 8 Oriamendi2010 roster pairs (7 players from the A Group and 9 from the B Group). The tournament will be contested in two 4 team groups (A and B). Each team corresponds to a cider house sponsor. Letters following the players' names correspond to their Oriamendi2010 groups.

Remonte Player Pages at Oriamendi2010

Group A

Bereziartua (Uterga-Labaka) (A-B)
Gaztañaga (Urriza-Zaldua) (A-B)
Larre-Gain (Juanenea-Azpiroz) (B-B)
Petritegi (Segurola-Endika) (B-A)

Group B

Altzueta (Etxarri-Ion) (A-A)
Gurutzeta (Ezkurra II-Garces) (B-B)
Oialume Zar (Goikoetxea V-Barrenetxea IV) (B-A)
Setien (Ansa II-Agirrezabala) (B-A)

Of these pairs, only Segurola-Endika have ever won the Tournament. There are five players who did not play (except as substitutes) last year. They are Ansa II, Etxarri, and Goikoetxea V in the front; Labaka and Zaldua in the back.

The tournament will consist of a League phase, a single round robin in each group. There will be a change in how the Semi-finals are contested this year. The first and second place teams in each group will advance to a Semi-final League, a single round robin. At the end of the Semi-final League the top two teams will play in the Final on May 4. This format makes the League play more important. Under the old format, all teams advanced, but were seeded so that the teams that finished lower had to play more matches to get to the Final.

Scoring for the League phase will be as follows.

Match winner (40 point matches): 4pts.
36-39: 2pts.
31-35: 1pt
26-30: 0pts.
0-25: -1pt

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Previous winners (Source: Oriamendi 2010 Emaitzak/Resultados database)

Note: for all results and match articles for all previous tournaments, I will link to the results. Finals match articles will be linked to directly. To match the results to the match articles for all other matches, I will link to all match articles for that year. Simply match the articles to the result dates. It is a bit cumbersome, but, I think, the easiest way to find non-Final Tournament match stories given the structure of the Oriamendi2010 databases. All match articles, unless otherwise specifically stated, are from Oriamendi2010 or the Viva El Remonte blog via Oriamendi2010. I have yet to find any tournament history in any modality covered as well and as powerfully from the standpoint of easy retrieval of information from one place, as the Oriamendi2010 website. High Cestas to all involved. Esterrik Asko.

2011--Juaristi-Olazar 40 Endika-Urrutia I 36 (match article) (complete match results)--(individual match articles)

2012--Onatz-San Miguel 40 Juaristi-Olazar 31 (match article) (video highlights 35-31--40-31) (complete tournament match results)--(individual match articles)

2013--Matxin III-Etxeberria III 40 Jauristi-Agirrezabala 33 (match article) (video highlights 36-28--40-33) (complete  tournament match results)--(individual match articles)

2014--Etxeberria IV-Ion 40 Matxin III-Etxeberria III 34 (match article)(video highlights 36-24--39-34) (full tournament match results)--(individual match articles)

2015--Zeberio II-Endika 40 Uterga-Olazar 27 (match article) (Full match video--EITB) (complete tournament match results)--(individual match articles)

2016--Segurola-Endika 40 Uterga-Aizpuru III 38 (match article) (Full match video--EITB) (complete tournament match results)--(individual match articles) (BLOG POST--scroll to the Remonte section))

2017--Otaegi-Ion 40 Urriza-Azpiroz 37  (match article)  (Full match video--EITB)  (complete tournament match results)--(individual match articles)

2018--Urriza-Garces 40 Uterga-Zubiri 31 (match article) (Full match video--EITB)  (complete tournament match by match results)--(individual match articles)

Endika is the only player to have won 2 STs. Juaristi, Olazar, Endika and Uterga have played in 3 finals. Matxin III, Etxteberria III, and Urriza  have played in 2 finals.

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Preview article (Oriamendi 2010)
Preview article (Diario Vasco)
Preview article (Kronika) (Basque)

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Round 1--Week 1: February 28-March 2, 2019; Round 1--Week 2: March 7, 9 ; Round 2--Week 1, March 14, 16 ; Round 2--Week 2, March 21, 23 ; Round 3--Week 1: March 28, 30 ; Round 3--Week 2: April 4, 6

Semi-final League
Round 1 ; Round 2 ; Round 3

Final

====================================

2019 full tournament match results

March 2, 2019

Group B


Ansa II-Agirrezabala (B-A) (Setien) 40 Goikoetxea V-Barrenetxea IV (B-A) (Oialume Zar) 37

Selected linescore (winners always listed first)

19-25; 30-25; 40-37

Partial scoring:

Ansa II +20 Agirrezabala +3 service aces -1
Goikoetxea V ?; Barrenetxea IV +3 services aces -1


Two Group B players who never participated as scheduled players in this Tournament before, played very well, according to the match article. Ansa II played a little better and errors by Goikoetxea V at the end, after he had played excellent Remonte earlier in the match, made the difference. The two Group A back court men played equally well. The key part of the match was an 11-0 run by A-A that turned the momentum. G-B fought hard, but could never overcome the deficit. 

An interesting sidelight was that Ansa II had lost 30-6 with Zaldua to Urtasun-Garces two days earlier. It wasn't exactly a confidence booster on the eve of his first Sagardoaren Tournament match. But it had no effect on his play. On the other hand, Barrenetxea IV, an experienced veteran who has played in many tournaments, had a great match the same day (+24) in a hard fought 40-36 win over Zeberio II-Larranaga. 

Group B Table

Setien (Ansa II-Agirrezabala) (B-A).........................1-0  +4
Oialume Zar (Goikoetxea V-Barrenetxea IV) (B-A)..0-1 +2
Altzueta (Etxarri-Ion) (A-A).......................................0-0   0
Gurutzeta (Ezkurra II-Garces) (B-B)...........................0-0  0

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February 28, 2019

Group A

Juanenea-Azpiroz (B-B) (Larre Gain) 40 Uterga-Labaka (A-B) (Bereziartua) 26

(B-B 1-0; A-B 0-1)

Selected linescore (winners always listed first)

7-2; 15-6; 20-10; 27-16; 30-20; 34-24; 40-26

Scoring:

Jaunenea +16 -2; Azpiroz +15 (including 5 service aces) -3
Uterga +11 -5; Labaka +10 (2 aces) -4*

*Inferred from the other scores


Juanenea was discussed in the Galarreta Star Match recurring Page  on February 9, 2019 and he and Azpiroz were discussed on the January 17 (see below, past the entire Masters singles Txapelketa (bordered in red). The Feb. 9 discussion highlighted the opinion that Juanenea was a much better player than his record indicated due to many unequal pairings where his team was in a lower ranked pairing. The January 19 discussion made the same argument for J-A as a team. The hypotheses would be severely tested in their opening Sagardoaren Group A match. They were matched up with 2018's Best Group A and Group B players. 

Juanenea (+16 -2) played a magnificent match, clearly (according to the match article) outplaying Uterga. Azpiroz statistically outplayed Labaka almost as much as J outplayed U. J-A's winners totaled over 3/4 of their points. Azpiroz had a terrific offensive day (+15) and made only 3 errors. J-A put U-L on the back foot with 7-2 and 8-4 runs at the start. They slowly increased or maintained that lead through to the end, finishing the match in style with a 6-2 run. U-L barely avoided a -1 point in their first match and are now under tremendous pressure to win their next two.

In the larger context of monthly Galarreta results, Juanenea's 5 match losing streak came to an end. 

 Group A Table

Team-Players-Oriamendi2010 position-wins-losses tournament points.

Larre Gain (Juanenea-Azpiroz) (B-B) 1-0 +4
Gaztañaga (Urriza-Zaldua) (A-B)........0-0  0
Petritegi (Segurola-Endika) (B-A).......0-0  0
Bereziartua (Uterga-Labaka) (A-B)......0-1 0 

Note: This Tournament can also be followed in its larger context of the twice weekly 4 match sessions (on Thursdays and Saturdays) at Galarreta. There, in addition to following this tournament, you can see how the participants in the ST are doing in their other weekly matches, what their monthly win-loss records are, and other information on the comings and goings of Oriamendi2010 Remonte. See the "Galarreta Star Match" recurring Page on the right side of the blog.

Also, these professional Remonte players don't play all their matches at Galarreta. They also play in an annual set of mostly short court (36-38 meters, as opposed to Galarreta's 56 meter court) tournaments sponsored by Fundacion Remonte Euskal Jai (Euskal Jai Berri). Those competitions are covered on a separate Page on the right side of the blog: Euskal Jai Berri Match results. Match scores, articles, and separate player win-loss records are available.