On March 30, 2019, the Federation Francaise de Pelote Basque (FFPB) released its 2018 ASSEMBLEE GENERALE ORDINAIRE EXERCICE (.PDF FORMAT, 145P.) It is the standard "annual report" of the Federation, the oldest Basque Pelota Federation in the world (1921). For more on the Federation's history click here. Among its many responsibilities is the organization of the North Basque Country's many national competitions in various modalities (Main Nue, various forms of Paleta Pelote and Pala, Cesta Punta/Grand Chistera, Joko Garbi, Pasaka, Rebote, Frontenis, and Frontball). These sports are played on Trinquets; 30, 36, and 54 meter Frontons Mur a Gauche (1) (2); and outside on Frontons Place Libre. The non-crash helmet Paleta sports and Frontenis are played by men and women). Most of the sports are amateur but FFPB also organizes Cesta Punta and Main Nue competitions that are played by professionals.
Most of these competitions are split into age groups from "Poussins" (the youngest) to National A and B. It is a large responsibility to organize all these things and the AGOE is the annual summary of FFPB's activities.
Within this report is a hidden treasure for fans of the sports who want to keep up with the results. This can be done by consulting the FFPB's competition databases, which track back to 2016-17 and have complete results of the competitions. But it takes a little work and it is easy to retrieve much more information than needed.
On P. 8-24 of the 2018 Exercice is a simple listing of the championship final results in the national competitions the FFPB sponsors. I wish I would have found out about this sooner. It would have saved me hours of research.
The 2018 Exercice was published in 2019. The FFPB, on a single page (scroll to "Assemblee Generale" for any of the years 2018-2012--covering the years 2017-2011), click on the "Assemblee Generale" links, and presto, you have an archive (all .pdf format) of championship results for the past 7 years. It is a magnificent, easily accessible archive. And one I plan on using, constantly, from now on.
