Jai Alai/Cesta Punta/Grand Chistera--Recent Amateur Tournaments--Hegoalde (South Basque) and Iparralde (North Basque)

Lost in the slip stream of all the marvelous professional Jai Alai/Cesta Punta Summer Partido action we have been watching, first in Mexico (May-June) and then in both Hegoalde (South Basque--Jai Alai World Tour) and Iparralde (North Basque--Cesta Punta Pro Tour), is the smaller but just as interesting tale of several amateur matches and Tournaments, 12 of which we have full match videos for. Amateur J/CP is played at a very high level in the Basque Country, and if you watch, you will see the professional stars of tomorrow, as well as some excellent J/CP today.

Let us start at the beginning.

Hegoalde (South Basque)

EEPF (Euskadiko Euskal Pilota Federakuntza)

CPTO. Gravni Federaciones Cesta Punta Parejas Juveniles, Under 22, and Senior Competitions

These Tournaments took place from March 15-May 4 and were played as league round robins followed by Semi-finals, and then a Final. EITB televised the Finals of the Under 22 and Senior Competitions. Iparralde played in all 3 finals and won 1.

Complete competition contexts (all scores and league tables) (links will go directly to League phase--click on phase box to switch to Semi-Finals and Finals)

Juvenile
Under 22
Senior

FINALS (FULL MATCH VIDEOS--EITB--IN THE ORDER OF THE SCORES GIVEN BELOW)--As always, be patient with EITB videos, they may take time to come in.

Hondarribia (1) (2)

Under 22

Iparralde (blue) (Gonzalez-Iturralde) 30 Gipuzkoa (red) (Agirre-Manzisidor) 23

Senior

Bizkaia (red) ((Jokin) Arbe-Mandiola) 30 Iparralde (blue) (Laloo-(Thibault) Basque) 19

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Xistera Kluba (Mission Statement)

Xistera Kluba is the leading amateur Cesta Punta organization in Hegoalde. It also serves as an organizer of the sport in Iparralde. It sponsors several major tournaments a year and often streams the finals live on its Youtube channel. It features different age group competitions as well as girls competitions.

Rankings (note that there are other tournaments, some of them quiniela tournaments, that have not been streamed). (.pdf format). (added September 9, 2019)
All results for 2019  (men) (.pdf format) (added September 9, 2019). Complete 2019 results: 12 Quiniela Tournaments, 3 Partido Tournaments, read from the bottom up for chronological listing (added March 16, 2020).

August 3

Cabanillas (1) (2)

FINALS

Preview article (xistera.eus)

Calendar (schedule) (xistera twitter)

Full match video of all 3 matches (in the order below) (xistera.eus Youtube)

1st Division

Garcia-Garat (blue) 2 Ibanez-Olazagazti 1

(9-15, 15-9, 5-0) (29-24) (xistera Twitter)

2nd Division

Antxon-Mandagaran (blue) 2 Aaron-Mancini 1

(9-15, 15-7, 5-1) (29-23) (xistera Twitter)

3rd Division

Egana-Del Rio 2 Urreisti-Alberri 0

(15-13, 15-14) (30-27) (xistera Twitter)

Match articles for all 3 matches (including condensed linescores for each set of each match)

August 31

Donibane Lohizune (Saint Jean de Luz) (1) (2)

FINALS

Full match videos for all 3 matches (Xistera Kluba Youtube) Matches are in the order of results below--links will take you directly to the match of your choice)

Third Division:

Libois-Alberro (blue) 2 Urreisti-Larrazabal (red) 1

(15-10, 8-15, 5-4) (28-29)

Second Division:

Urrutia-Sorozabal (red) 2 Ibanez-Gonzalez (blue) 0

(15-12, 15-10) (30-22)

Primary Division

Antxon-Zugaitz (red) 2 Gonzalez-Goixerri (blue) 0

(15-13, 15-6) (30-19)

Match articles for all three matches (Xistera Kluba). Note: match articles contain condensed linescores for each set of each match.

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Iparralde (North Basque)

Tournois Couretepaille

This was a single elimination amateur tournament that served as a "lever de rideau" (curtain raiser) for the entire Cesta Punta Pro Tour SLAM (Champion of Champions) Tournament. It was held August 22, 27, and 29.

St. Jean de Luz (1) (2)

August 29

FINAL

Urrutia-Sallabery (red) 2

J. Sorozabal-Manzisidor (blue) 1 (Canal + via Saint Jean de Luz Cesta Punta Youtube)

(5-13, 13-9, 5-2) (23-26)

August 27

2nd Semi-final

J. Sorozabal-Manzisidor (red) 2 Goitia-Harinordoqui 0 (Canal + via Saint Jean de Luz Cesta Punta Youtube)

(13-7, 13-8) (26-15)

August 22

1st Semi-final

Urrutia-Sallabery (blue) 2 Gonzalez-G. Sorozabal (red) 1 (Canal + via Saint Jean de Luz Cesta Punta Youtube)

(4-13, 13-8, 5-4) (22-25)

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Grande Semaine--Grand Chistera

Grande Semaine is organized by the FFPB (Federation Francaise de Pelote Basque). The Grand Chistera (outdoor Cesta Punta, played on an 80-100 meter court by teams of 3, without crash helmets) tournament was a 4 team knock out 

competition with Semi-finals on July 17 and the final on August 14.

Complete results (FFPB results database)

August 14

FINAL

Olharroa (Zamora-Chapeltegui-Laduche) 40 Kostakoak 1 (L. Garcia-Laloo-(Thibault) Basque 33

Unfortunately there is no publicly available video of this match. What is available, to give you a flavor of what this type of outdoor competition looks like, is the 2018 final, streamed by TV Landes. It was played at Bidart (1) (2)

Kostakoak 2 (white) (L. Garcia-Laloo-(Thibault) Basque) 40 Kostakoak 1 (blue) (Amati-Belly-Alegre) 17