Pala/Pala Larga--Asta Nagusia Bilbao Torneo--August 19, 23, 2019

Asta Nagusia Bilbao--Bizkaia (1) (2) Torneo (August 19, 23)

This was a  single elimination knock out tournament, with semi-finals on August 19 and a Final on August 23. It was part of the Asta Nagusia (Great Week) festival in Bilbo (Bilbao). 

*=Amateur

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There were four "points of light" in this tournament.

1. Pablo Hernan "Fusto" returned from his triumph at the Pan American Games Pelota Paleta Cuero competiditon in early August., He and his partner Alfredo Villegas won the competition for Argentina without losing a set. 

In this tournament he was +23 -11 in two wins and played some of his best Pala. The result was his first tournament win in 2019. 

2. Ibai Perez continued his excellent play in this Tournament. He had a great final following an undefeated League phase in the Donostia #Kirol Txartela Competition. He followed that up with 2 wins in this Tournament to run his overall winning streak to 6. He is playing superb defense at the moment, moving all over the concha, and has had plenty of opportunities to hone his rebote (rebound) defense, including, recently, a couple of falling rebotes. The rebote is, in my opinion, the most difficult shot in the modality. He executes it effortlessly. He has also lately shown some venom on his serves, scoring 8 aces in the D#KT final. When he gets going like he is, it makes for a long "day at the office" for his opponents. 

3. We saw what could be the beginning of a very successful career. Benat Ibarguren, after an impressive if not terribly successful D#KT (where his was the only all amateur team), was invited to take part in this tournament, as well as the next one at Plentzia, and the 3rd Place match at Sopela after that. He is substituting for Ander Landeta, who is recovering from wrist surgery. Ibarguren played effectively in the front and made his presence known in both matches he played in, including a win in the 3rd place match with Ibararai against Necol-Urrutia. EITB had his figures as +10 -5 in that match, and by my scoring he was +14 -6 in the Semi-final, for a total of +24 -11 for the Tournament. He made some mistakes and had a couple of mis-communications with his partner, but looked like a player to "keep an eye on", with a lot of talent and enthusiasm for the game. It will be interesting to see how this story develops.

4. As a player, Dan Necol did not have the best of Tournaments. Everyone has ups and downs, and he has had a lot more ups than downs in the last 9 months. What he was good at, great at, in my opinion, was video streaming (and making available on demand) the two Semi-final matches on August 19. Because of his farsightedness with regard to spreading the game, this entire tournament is available for viewing. This is also beginning to happen in Main Nue, where Pilota Ttiki provides great condensed full match videos through their Youtube portal.  

Dan simply sets up a small camera behind the glass at Bizkaia, low and behind the action. There is nothing but the match and the sound. But from that one camera angle, viewers can see perfectly, and the scoreboard is always on view. There is no commentary, just Pala Larga, up close and personal. Because there is only one camera, the viewer can keep his/her eyes on the pelota at all times and get a real sense of just how fast it moves. He is spreading the game in a very low tech but effective way. It is, I think, one of the waves of the future in terms of building a non-Basque audience for one of the most exciting of the suite of Basque Pelota modalities. Since he has been streaming, I have seen more Pala Larga this year than in all the other years combined I have been following. You can watch any of them at  his Facebook page.

Merci pour le travail bien fait, Dan. Eskerrik Asko. 

NOTE: ANOTHER SET OF SCORING DECISIONS WAS ADDED TO EACH SEMI-FINAL WHEN I BECAME AWARE OF A DEIA MATCH ARTICLE ON SEPTEMBER 1. SEE BELOW.

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August 23

FINAL

Full Match Videos of both Matches (EITB: 3rd place match begins at 0:00--joined in progress in the 1st joko; Final begins at 50:40

Fusto-Ibai Perez 3 Gaubeka-Gordon 0

(10-8, 10-7, 10-4) (30-19)

Scoring: (EITB)

Fusto +13 -4; Ibai Perez +4 -5

Gaubeka +7 -7; Gordon +2 -6

(Scores add to 30-18)

Balls in Play: 506: Fusto 112; Ibai Perez 146; Gaubeka 142; Gordon 106

Match article (Deia)
Match article (Mundo Deportivo) (added September 1, 2019)

The first joko (set) had 6 equal scores (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8). F-IP dominated more as the match progressed. 

3rd Place

Ibarguren*-Ibargarai 3 Necol-Urrutia 1

(9-10, 10-8, 10-4, 10-8) (39-30)

Scoring (EITB)

Ibarguren +10 -5; Ibargarai+15 -9

Necol +8 -9; Urrutia +7 -5

Scoring adds to 40-29

Balls in Play: 408: Ibarguren 96; Ibargarai 110; Necol 92; Urrutia 110

Time of the Match: 51:23 (Deia)

August 19

Semi-Finals

Full match videos of both matches were streamed on Dan Necol's Facebook page. They are also available on demand. 

Links below should link you directly to each match.

Match article for both matches (Deia) (added September 1, 2019). Note: I will give the Deia scoring below.  Below that is my own scoring, which I did when I didn't think any source with more authority than my own would be available. Deia provides full match scoring only. I will juxtapose the two full sets of full match scoring together. I was fairly close, but I always defer to scorers that know more than I. You might find the scoring comparison interesting.

Fusto-Ibai Perez 3 Necol-Urrutia 1

(10-6, 9-10, 10-4, 10-6) (39-26)

Joko (Set 1)

Condensed linescore (match winners always listed 1st)

1-0; 1-4; 4-4; 4-5; 6-5; 6-6; 10-6

Scoring (my judgments, yours may be different). Note: there was a "blind spot" at the back left wall. If a pelota was returned that was short or high, I automatically gave a winner to the previous shooter.

Fusto +1 -1; Ibai-Perez +2 (2 service aces) -1

Necol +4 -3; Urrutia +0 -4

Balls in Play: 104

Time of the Joko: 13:23

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Joko 2:

Linescore:

1-0; 1-4; 2-4; 2-6; 4-6; 4-7; 8-7; 8-8; 9-8; 9-9; 9-10 (Urrutia scores on a long two wall, one of the best shots of either match).

Scoring:

Fusto +4 -3; Ibai Perez +1 -2 (including 1 service fault)

Necol +3 -2; Urrutia +2 -2

Balls in Play: 139

Time of the Joko: 13:29

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Joko 3

Linescore

0-1; 2-1; 2-3; 6-3; 6-4; 10-4

Scoring

Fusto +2 -1; Ibai Perez +3(2a) -0

Necol +3 -2; Urrutia +0 -3

Balls in Play: 84

Time of the Joko: 9:13

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Joko 4

Linescore

0-1; 3-1; 3-2; 7-2; 7-3; 8-3; 8-4; 9-4; 9-6; 10-6

Scoring

Fusto +3 -2; Ibai Perez +2(1a) -0

Necol +4 -4; Urrutia +0 -1

Balls in Play: 105

Time of the Joko: 10:14

==========

For the match:

DEIA: 

Fusto +10 -8; Ibai Perez +11(8a) -2(1f)
Necol +12 -11; Urrutia +4 -8
Total score adds to 40-26

Balls in Play: 434

Time of the match 51 minutes 

My Scoring

Fusto +10 -7; Ibai Perez +8(5a) -3(1f)

Necol +14 -11; Urrutia +2 -10
Total score adds to  39-26

Balls in Play: 432

Time of the Match: 50:19

Gaubeka-Gordon 3 Ibarguren*-Ibargarai 1

(10-9, 6-10, 10-4, 10-6) (36-29)

Joko 1

Condensed linscores (match winners always listed first)

2-0; 2-2; 3-2; 3-3; 4-3; 4-5; 5-5; (3 errors by Ibarguren) 9-5; (3 winners by Ibarguren) 9-9; 10-9

Scoring

Gaubeka +2 -0; Gordon +2 -2

Ibarguren +5 -3; Ibargarai +2 -3 (including 1 service fault)

Balls in Play: 106

Time of the Joko: 13:12

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Joko 2

Linescore

1-0; 1-3; 3-3; 3-6; 4-6; 4-9; 6-9; 6-10

Scoring

Gaubeka +2 -0; Gordon +1 (1 service ace) -2(1f)

Ibarguren +5 -2; Ibargarai +3(1a) -1(1f)

Balls in Play: 68

Time of the Joko: 8:57

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Joko 3

Linescore

1-0; 1-1; (Gordon behind the back save) 2-1; 2-2; 4-2; 4-4; 10-4

Scoring

Gaubeka +5 -1; Gordon +3(2a) -1(1f)

Ibarguren +0 -0; Ibargarai +2 -2

Balls in Play: 101

Time of the Joko: 10:28

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Joko 4

Linescore

1-0; 1-2; 3-2; 3-3; 4-3; 4-5; 5-5; 5-6; 10-6

Scoring

Gaubeka +4 -1; Gordon +2 -0

Ibarguren +4 -1; Ibargarai +1(1a) -3(1f)

Balls in Play: 99

Time of the Joko: 10:58

==========

For the match:

Scoring:

DEIA:

Gaubeka +11 -4; Gordon +8(4a) -5(2f)
Ibarguren +12 -8; Ibargarai +6(2a) -9(2f)
Score adds to 36-27

Balls in Play: 372

Time of the match: 57 minutes 

My scoring:

Gaubeka +13 -2; Gordon +8(3a) -5(2f)

Ibarguren +14 -6; Ibargarai +8(2a) -9(3f)
Total score adds to 36-29

Balls in Play: 374

Time of the match: 43:35 (there was obviously a discrepancy here). I counted according to the Facebook clock, and did not count the time between sets or the time between matches. I counted from when the first serve of the match hit the floor to when the final point was scored in each set and added those times together. 

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InnPala Player Records from January 1-August 23, 2019

Key: Player; Position (d=delantero (front court), z=zaguero (back court)); match wins-losses; joko (set) wins-losses; winning-losing streak; championships won. Matches that are single partidos will be noted. Table will be according to match winning percentage. 1st tie breaker will be number of wins. 2nd tie breaker will be joko win-loss differential. 3rd tie breaker is joko winning percentage

Championships: L=La Liga; MI=Mundo Individuel; MP=Mundo Parejas; Biz Op=Bizkaia Open; S=San Fermin (see Pala section); D=Donostio #Kiro Txartela; AN=Asta Nagusia Bilbao

Necol(d)......21-9..68-49...-3.....2(L)(S)(a)(b)

Fusto(d)......13-11.47-43...+2.....1(AN)(a)(c)
Gaubeka(d).....9-11.44-38...-1.....1(MP)

Garate(d)......7-16.33-53...-1(b)(c)

Landeta(d).....1-7..9-22....-6

Brefel(z)......3-1..11-6....+1(a)*

Ibai-Perez(z).18-9..58-47...+6(a)..3(MP)(D)(AN)(c)
Ibargarai(z)..16-9..59-44...+1.....3(MI)(Biz Op)(S) 
Urrutia(z)....11-15.49-53...-2.....1(L)(c)

Gordon(z)......6-17.33-55...-1(b)

* Retired from InnPala February 15, 2019
a=February 15, 2019: Sylvain Brefel's farwell match
b=May 31, 2019: A friendly that was set up on short notice when Fusto had to pull out of his Bizkaia Open Jornada 6 match due to back discomfort. Necol-Arroita* 3 Garate-Gordon 0

(10-6, 10-8, 10-6) (30-20)

c=June 21, 2019. A 45 point single partido match: Fusto-Ibai Perez 45 Garate-Urrutia 27

For up to date win-loss records of the InnPala staff, see the cumulative InnPala Player win-loss table page of this blog.