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Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Pala/Pala Larga: 2018-19 Liga Kutxabank Final, Semi-final, Complete Results, and Various Information about Liga Competitions back to 2006

The Liga Kutxabank competition, the premier (mostly) short court Pala pairs tournament, began on October 26, 2018, and ended with a final on January 12, 2019. Most of the tournament was played at Bizkaia, Bilbo (Bilbao) (1)(2). But the first three rounds were played at Sopela (1)(2), Sestao (1)(2), and on the Mungia (1)(2) long court that is the "Cathedral" of Pala.

It was a double round robin tournament featuring all of the InnPala  roster. There was a league phase, a double round robin in which the table was determined by the amount of jokos (sets) won, making each set important, no matter the outcome of the 3 out of 5 set matches (each set to 10). The top league finisher was seeded automatically into the final. The number two and three finishers played a semi-final. The teams:

Fusto-Gordon
Necol-Urrutia
Gaubeka-Ibai Perez
Garate-Brefel
Landeta-Ibargarai

InnPala Players, information and photos (click on "entradas anteriores" at the bottom of the page for the remaining players.)

Note: the complete Liga table, along with complete results (jokos and joko scores--which are linked to their source, Diario Vasco Carteleras), are available. There are short match stories available for many of the league rounds (also known as "jornadas"). The source, when available, is the InnPala Fronton facebook page. For matches where newspaper accounts are available, the source is provided next to the link. The sources for available full match video are EITB and Toute sur la Pelote Basque Youtube. The final league table will be posted here. The match by match results will be linked to a "MY ARTICLE" post at the bottom of the page.

Also below there is a listing of previous Liga winners going back to 2011, with joko scores (various sources given below), along with links to relevant newspaper and blog articles, as well as match video when available (video source is EITB unless otherwise specified). For selected earlier tournaments there is Liga phase information available as well. Sources are InnPala and various newspaper or blog information.

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Competition preview article (Deia)

A new Innpala player, delantero (front court player) Ibon Garate, (Mundo Deportivo) made his professional debut in this competition. He replaces Erik Zubiri, who left InnPala in August 2018 to become a fire fighter (Mundo Deportivo).

January 12, 2019

Final (Bizkaia, Bilbo (Bilbao)

Necol-Urrutia 3 Fusto-Gordon 0 (10-6; 10-8; 10-7) (30-21)

Full match video

Match preview (interviews with Necol and Fusto--EITB)
Match article (Deia)
Match article (Mundo Deportivo)

Scoring (Source: Deia match article)

Necol +11 -5; Urrutia + 9 -8 (including 1 service fault)
Fusto +4 -3; Gordon +4 (including 2 service aces) -7 (including 1 service fault)

327 bip.
Time of match: 39 minutes.

Enhanced Linescore (winners always listed first).
Key: Server: U=Urrutia; G=Gordon; (number of balls in play (bip)); score; selected comments

N-U won the toss.

Joko 1:  U (7) 1-0; U (5) 2-0; U (5) 3-0; U (1) 4-0; U (5) 5-0, N 2 wall winner; U (5) 6-0; U (11) 7-0; U (2) 7-1; G (3) 7-2; G (1) 7-3; G (12) 8-3; U (3) 9-3; U (0) 9-4 (U fault); G (11) 9-5; G (9) 9-6; G (2) 10-6: 82 bip

Joko 2
: G (6) 1-0; U (3) 2-0; U (2) 2-1; G (23) 2-2, F winner; G (3) 2-3; G (8) 3-3; U (7) 4-3; U (12) 4-4; G (0) 5-4 (G fault); U (5) 6-4; U (4) 6-5; G (4) 7-5; U (10) 7-6; G (8) 8-6; U (5) 9-6; U (12) 9-7; G (1) 9-8; G (6) 10-8: 119 bip

Joko 3: G (4) 1-0; U (4) 1-1; G (2) 2-1; U (16) 2-2; G (3) 2-3; G (5) 2-4; G (24) 3-4, U winner; U (21) 4-4, N 2 wall winner; U (3) 5-4 U left wall winner; U (2) 5-5; G (4) 6-5; U (3) 7-5; U (10) 7-6; G (12) 8-6; U (5) 9-6; N 2 wall winner; U (6) 9-7; U (2) 10-7: 126 bip

Dan Necol has had a fabulous three months. First, he won the Federation International Pelota Vasca (FIPV) Pala Corta Campeonato del Mundo Gold Medal with Sylvan Brefel, for France against  Gaubeka-Skufca (Spain), in a brilliant final (10-15; 15-12; 10-8). That was in mid-October, 2018.

Full match video, (Toute sur la Pelote Basque Youtube, match begins at 21:23 on the video).

Match article (FIPV)

That victory helped France to win the overall World Championship (7 golds, 5 silvers, 4 bronzes) for the first time since 1994. After about two weeks off to celebrate, Necol and Inaki Urrutia got a slow start in the Liga competition, losing three of their first five matches (but still having a 12-9 joko record), before they caught fire, winning their last three matches (finishing with a 21-15 joko record). They then won an incredible semi-final (see below). Their momentum carried them to an easy victory over Fusto-Gordon, last year's Mudial Parejas champions, in the final. The teams split their two matches in the competition. Two months earlier F-G had overcome a 2-0 joko deficit on the 43 meter court at Sestao. (1 point of that match is available via Dan Necol's Facebook page.

The match was decided in the first joko. Neither team played especially well.  Iker Gordon had a particularly difficult time, and before they knew it, F-G were down 7-0. They closed the gap, (9-3--9-6), but had too deep a hole to get out of. The entire joko consumed only 82 balls in play.

The second joko was of better quality, and Fusto came to the party, helping his team reach their first equality with a nice winner on the 23 ball 1-2--2-2 point. F-G then took their first lead (3-2) but N-I responded immediately, taking back the lead at 4-3 and stretching it to 9-6 before F-G rallied to 9-8. Urrutia then finished the joko with a winner and N-U were up 2-0. There were 119 balls in play in this joko.

In the third joko, both teams played their best pala, and the result was some very scintillating play. N-U stumbled early and F-G took a 4-2 lead. Here N-U showed their mettle, winning the two longest points of the match (24 and 21 balls in play) via an Urrutia winner and a wonderful Necol 2 wall winner. They then took a 5-4 lead on a very nice Urrutia left wall shot that Fusto swung at, but only connected with air. Gordon played well in this joko, making some outstanding saves during the long points. A Gordon winner made it 7-6. Then Necol emphatically punctuated the win with another crisp 2 wall winner. A short time later N-U were Champions. There were 126 balls in play in this joko. There were 327 in the match.

NU finished the competition with five consecutive wins. They won 15 of their last 19 jokos. It was Necol's second Liga championship in two tries. Fusto has now, since 2011, played in six of the seven championship finals in this grueling competition. He has won three. Gordon, last year's champion (with Gaubeka) in his first Liga Championship match, is now 1-1. Urrutia, who also played in his first Championship Match last year, is also 1-1.

Finally, some salient statistics should be pointed out. The 51 match points averaged 6.41 balls in play per point. There were 10 points that consumed 10 or more balls in play, 2 points that consumed 20 or more. The match took 39 minutes to play even though none of the jokos was decided by more than 4 points. So maybe it was not the most brilliant championship match ever played, but there were flashes of great play. The 3rd Joko was excellent. And...Dan Necol is one happy palista :)

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December 28, 2018

Semi-final

Necol-Urrutia 3 Gaubeka-Ibai Perez 2 (10-8; 10-9; 5-10; 8-10; 10-7) (43-44)

Full match video (EITB--match begins at 1:10:44)

N-U tied Fusto-Gordon for most jokos won with 21 in the league phase. They split two league matches, with both joko scores 3-2 (F-G won at Sestao on November 4, 2019  4-10, 7-10, 10-7, 10-6, 10-5 while NU won at Bilbo (Bilbao) on December 14, 10-9, 10-9, 3-10, 6-10, 10-5. The league winner, I am assuming (because I could find no specifications in the latest rules, which are in the 2016 Liga InnPala announcement), came down to total points. F-G won the league by 7 points (84-77). Gaubeka-Ibai Perez came in 3rd with 19 jokos won. That is how this semi-final matchup came to be. G-I and N-U split two league matches, G-I winning the first at Bilbo November 16 3-2 (7-10, 8-10, 10-3, 10-6, 10-8). N-U won at Bilbo on December 24 3-1 (10-4, 10-4, 7-10, 10-9). That win came directly after F-G beat the tail enders Landeta-Ibargarai in a very tough match 3-2 (10-6, 7-10, 10-4, 9-10, 10-4), clinching their spot in the final. So this semi-final was likely to be quite competitive, given how close the league phase was between the thee teams. And it did not disappoint. 1 point separated the teams after five extremely hard fought jokos and Gaubeka's quest for a third consecutive championship (unprecedented in this competition since 2011) came three points short.

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Recap of the entire 2018-19 Liga Kutxabank competition.

Final Table (Source: cut and pasted from InnPala home page)

Liga kutxabank
Teams Games Jokos won Jokos lost                Total
 
Fusto-Gordon      8             21             15                   21  (6-2)
Necol-Urrutia      8             21             15                   21  (5-3)
Gaubeka-Ibai      8             19             16                   19  (6-2)
Garate-Brefel      8             14             17                   14  (3-5)
Landeta-Ibargarai8              6              21                     6  (0-8)

There was one match I was unable to find, but was able to infer. The second match between Gaubeka-Ibai Perez and Garat-Brefel was won, I believe, by G-I 3-0. That is the only way that both the jokos and win-loss records balance. I also counted the jokos and came up with slightly different findings, again, which you can look at in the MY ARTICLE accompanying this. This difference didn't effect the final number of jokos won, but I could only find 12 joko losses for N-U, and G-I. Since L-I lost all their matches, they had to have 24 joko losses.

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Winners of the Liga competition going back to 2011 (sources: InnPala, Toute sur la Pelote Basque Youtube, Diario Vasco Cartelera, Naiz Cartelera, various newspaper articles, Haixeder Blog).

Deportivo de Bilbao 2006 Parejas (?)

Fusto-Torre 45 Urkia Rekalde 37 (Dairo Vasco Cartelera)

Match article (Diario Vasco)

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Deportivo de Bilbao 2007 Parejas (?)

Imanol-Urkia 45 Gaubeka-Velilla 33

Partial linescore
24-13; 45-33

Match article (Diario Vasco)

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Deportivo de Bilbao 2008 (?)

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Deportivo de Bilbao Parejas 2009 (?)

Gaubeka-Beldarrain 45 Urkia-Lujan 35

Match article (Diario Vasco)

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Deportivo de Bilbao 2010 (?)

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Liga de Parejas 2011

Fusto-Garma 3 Altadill-Ayerbe 1 (10-5; 10-7; 9-10; 10-6)

Third place: Gaubeka-Larrinaga 3  Zulaika-Lujan 2 (2-10, 10-8, 3-10, 10-3, 10-8) both (Naiz cartelera)

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Liga de Parejas 2012

Gaubeka-Larrinaga 3 Urkijo-Ibargari 2 (12-5, 12-11, 7-12, 9-12, 12-11)

Third place: Altadill-Imanol 3 Garcia Aierbe 1 (12-3, 12-11, 8-12, 12-6)

Source for joko scores of both: Diario Vasco Cartelera

Tournament regulations, standings, joko scores (Innpala)

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2013 Liga Innpala de Parejas

Fusto-Ayerbe 3 Gaubeka-Imanol 2 (10-7, 7-10, 10-7, 7-10, 10-4)

Third place: Altadill-Lujan 3 Garcia-Ibargari 2 (10-9, 7-10, 10-9, 9-10, 10-4)

Final Table (InnPala)
Joko scores for final and 3rd place (InnPala)

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2014 BBK Liga

Fusto-Ibai Perez 3 v Gaubeka-Larranaga 0 (10-7; 10-7; 10-2) (Diario Vasco Cartelara)

Final Table (Innpala)

Entire Tournament results (Haixeder Blog)  all but the final

Final point and closing ceremony (EITB)

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2015 Liga BBK 

Necol-Imanol 3 Fusto-Ayerbe 1 (10-8; 10-4; 5-10; 10-4)

Match article (Naiz)

Schedule and regulations (Innpala)

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2016 Liga Kutxabank

Gaubeka-Ibai-Perez 3 Necol-Ibargari 0 (10-4; 10-7; 10-9)

Complete coverage of the entire tournament is available in another post in this blog. Unfortunately, the EITB videos are no longer available.

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2017 Liga Kutxabank

Gaubeka-Gordon 3 Fusto-Urrutia 2 (10-8; 10-9; 9-10; 3-10; 10-6)

Full match video (Toute sur la Pelote Basque Youtube)

Jornada 2 matches:

Full match video (Toute sur la Pelota Basque Youtube)

Landeta-Brefel 3 Necol-Ibargari 2 (8-10, 10-4, 8-10, 10-8, 10-7) (1st match on video)
Fusto-Urrutia 3 Zubiri-Ibai Perez 0 (10-9, 10-8, 10-5)

Jornada 6 match: Fusto-Urrutia 3 v Landeta-Brefel 2 (10-9; 10-9; 6-10; 10-9)

Full match video (Toute sur la Pelote Basque Youtube)

Journada 8 match:

Necol-Ibargari 3 Zubiri-Ibai Perez 1 (5-10, 10-5, 10-8, 10-3)

Full match video (Toute sur la Pelote Basque Youtube)


MY ARTICLE: The 2018-19 Liga Kutxabank--Match by Match. Also, a few Librarian's tricks.