Masters and Open do Marcat--Peyrehorade (1) (2)
These were two singles tournaments, and will be played on Wednesdays between July 17 and August 7, 2019. The Masters was a professional tournament, the Open an amateur tournament.
As always, with one (or multiple) tournaments that took place over a long time period, for chronolgical order, read each tournament from the bottom up.
Source for all scores (Trinquet Rekalde Facebook full match videos and Esku Pilota Resultats
The players:
Masters
Ospital; Guichandut; L. Lambert; Ducassou
This is an excellent, annual three week tournament that features some of the best professionals (3 are in the top 6 of the Esku Pilota rankings as of July 29, 2019--Ducassou, and Ospital, are #1 and 3 respectively). The amateurs in the Open Tournament (see below) are among the best in Main Nue. Unfortunately this tournament gets very little press, but what it does have, which more than makes up for that, is, for the first time, complete video coverage. The Trinquet appears to be narrower than a normal one, and perhaps a bit shorter, but the players make the tournament no matter what the surface, and this one was excellent. featuring one terrifically competitive match in each category. And you won't see a much better match anywhere or any time than the Masters final was. Note. There is no scoreboard to watch in any of these matches, but the score is called out on almost each point.
Merci Beaucoup, Trinquet Rekalde!
August 7
FINAL
Ducassou 40 Ospital 36 (Trinquet Rekalde Facebook full match video) (match begins at -1:26:50 from the RIGHT side of the slider bar)
July 31
2nd Semi-Final
July 17
1st Semi-final
Ospital 40 Guichandut 17 (Trinquet Rekalde Facebook full match video). Note the orientation is incorrect on this video. Best viewed on a device you can easily turn on its side.
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Open
The players: To help you become familiar with these players, who are among the best on the amateur scene, and may be on the Esku Pilota roster at some time in the future, I have linked selected match videos of them in action. Enjoy.
Jean-Philippe Bennesse (Final Landes Singles 1st series, March 3, 2019--Benesse is in black) (Pays d'Othe Main Nue condensed full match video;
Mickael Massonde (Championnat Pays Basque 1st series match--February 24, 2019--Massonde is bearded) (Pilota TTiki condensed full match video)
Etienne Lafitte (Goyats du Marcat--August 2017-Lafitte is in green) (Pays d'Orthe Main Nue Youtube)
Peio Tellier (Tellier is a mano specialist who competed in the 2018 FIPV world championships)
Christophe Cigarroa (FFPB Championnat de France Individuel Final--April 21, 2019--Cigarroa is in white)
Cigarroa showed, in this tournament, why he is arguably the best amateur player in this modality at the moment.
August 7
FINAL
July 24
2nd Semi-Final
July 10
1st Semi-final