Basque Pelota Updates (June 2016-April 2017); 2019-: 12/26/20

Saturday, December 26, 2020

Jai Alai/Cesta Punta--2020 Up and Comers--Video Links to Some of the Best Young Pelotaris in the Basque Country

Over the course of this Pandemic fractured year, Jai Alai/Cesta Punta has continued in the Basque country (sometimes in empty frontons or with attendance limits), both Hegoalde and Ipparalde (South and North Basque). Great players are still great, but they are, inevitably getting older. Inaki Goikoetxea, Diego Beaskoetxea, Imanol Lopez, Eric Irastorza, etc., are all on the other side of 35, with Goiko and Irastorza past 40.

So one of the things to watch this year when watching the Partido seasons of Jai Alive (with a small addition from the Jai Alai World Tour at the end of the year) in the South, and Cesta Punta Pro Tour in the North, as well as the amateur competitions held by Xistera in the South, and Biarritz, St. Jean-Pied-de-Port (Donibane Garazi), and St. Jean-de Luz (Donibane Lohizune) in the North, is who is "Up and Coming"? Who are some players to watch for in the coming years?

In the spirit of the new, this post has taken pieces from other blog posts and put them together into a "highlight reel" of links to mostly full match videos by some of the newer faces in the sport. They range from 17-25 years old. Whether any of them will cross the sea to play in the Quinela's in Florida or the Partidos in Mexico remains to be seen. Some young puntistas you may see in these videos are already playing at Dania and/or Miami, or have played at Fronton Mexico. I have not included them (with the exception of two who have played at Fronton Mexico) because they are easy enough to follow on a daily basis via the Jai Alai Channel Youtube. But watch and enjoy the players of tomorrow, linked from one blog post.

I have linked all players to all the matches that there are videos for. This means that you will find several duplicate match links. It was much easier to organize this collection this way than trying to keep track of who played with who.

I have also provided links to the blog post related to each match for context. In the scores listed below, each of the Up and Comers will be bolded. Match winners will always be bolded. Non Up and Comers will be listed by surname only.

The videos are of varying quality, but all very "watchable". The source is Youtube (some Canal +), Facebook, EITB and LaLiga Sports. For most, you will be linked directly to the beginning of the match mentioned. For EITB matches that are not at the beginning of the video, I have listed the time on the video when they begin. I have attempted to aid identification for some of the videos by giving the shirt color of the puntista.

Note: I=Iparralde (North Basque); H=Hegoalde (South Basque); M=Mexico. This refers to where the match was played, not the origin of the puntista.

Note: The early Info Garazi Officiel Youtube videos below have no audio commentary or scores. The later ones have audio scores. The early Biarritz Athletic Club Facebook videos have no audio commentary or scores, but the later ones have audio scores (in French--for those who don't know French numbers see this page of The French Experiment). Canal + and EITB video's have visual scores on each point, as do FEPelota (La Liga Sports) Youtube, Xistera Youtube, and Fronton Mexico Youtube.

Finally, apologies in advance for the lack of internal links from the names below to their matches. It is a simple thing that I have not been able to master. In Blogger it cannot be done automatically. My HTML skills are limited. When and if I figure out how to do it, I will add them. Anyone is welcome to take my source code (none of which was written by me), and give me an example with one name to make this work (both forward and "back to"). I will then fill in the rest.

I can be reached at jbsolock1@gmail.com

As a poor substitute for internal links you can use the "Find" (CTRL-F) on PCs, (Command-F) on Apple. For mobiles, this short tutorial from the New York Times will explain it for Androids and IPhones. Note that a search for "Julen Del Rio" will take you to many (but not all) of his matches via front court player's links before you get to all of his under his name.

A word about organization. The players are divided into Fronts (Aurreliak, Delanteros, Avants) and Backs (Aztelariak, Zagueros, Arrieres). There are 10 fronts and 13 backs. They are listed alphabetically and their matches are linked chronologically. There is a link to more information about most of the puntistas.

They are:

(*of special interest, in my opinion)

Fronts (Aurreliak, Delanteros, Avants)

EDUARDO AGUIRRE

JULEN BASTERRA

MAXIME BENETRIX

IBAN ETCHEBERRY*

THEO ETCHEGARAY

CLEMENT GARCIA

AARON GONZALEZ*

BIXENTE GONZALEZ*

URKO LEKERIKA

THOMAS URRUTIA

Backs (Aztelariak, Zagueros, Arrieres)

TOM BERTHON

ANNTON DE BETTELU

JULEN DEL RIO*

HUGO IBAR

JON IBARLUZEA

AIZE ITURRALDE

THEO LABORDE*

MIKEL MAN(C/Z)ISIDOR*

DANIEL MANDIOLA

JON MANDIOLA

DAMIEN OURTHE

GUILLEN OYENART*

ZUGAITZ SALABERRY

UNAI URRANGA

=============================

FRONTS (AURRELIAK, DELANTERO, AVANTS)

EDUARDO AGUIRRE (2019 Xistera standings--Maila 1 #10 Aurreliak)

Match videos

1. (H) Federation Espanola de Pelota (FEPelota) Cesta Navidad Copa de Espana Men's Under 23 Match (December 12, 2020) (FEPelota Youtube) Unfortunately, the sound and video are not synchronized in this match until about the 1:42:34 (1st set: 11-6) mark on the video .

Eduardo Aguirre-Mikel Man(c/zi)sidor (White) 2

Aaron Gonzalez-Daniel Mandiola (Red) 0

(15-10, 15-10) (30-20)