This is a current awareness blog that links to the latest sources of information on Basque Pelota matches and Tournaments. It covers all of both North and South Basque modalities: Pro and amateur. It links to match stories, statistics and video highlights and/or full match videos. NEW!!! JAI ALAI LEAGUE (EREMAN!) SEASON INTRO AND JAI ALAI WOMEN'S WINTER TOUR 2024 (2/22/24)!!!

Monday, August 7, 2023

JAI ALAI/CESTA PUNTA--HOW TO FOLLOW THE SUMMER PARTIDOS

Here is an annotated list, for those interested, of links to follow the remaining 2023 Summer Partidos in Hegoalde (South Basque) and Iparralde (North Basque)

NOTE: As far as I know, you do not have to be a member of Facebook to access Facebook Group pages. You will be asked for your Facebook information, but if you just X out the request, you will be taken to the address.

HEGOALDE:

These tournaments are best followed via Jai Alai News Facebook. JANF languages are almost exclusively Castilian, French, or Basque. Most browsers have facilities to automatically translate (after a fashion) to the language you are interested in. If not, simply cut and paste the article into Google Translate or the online translator of your choice. Most Hegoalde Tournaments are held on the weekends, so it is helpful to check in on JANF Wednesdays or Thursdays to see what is going on. Unfortunately, I have found no central source that gives a schedule for these tournaments. Eraman!, the official sponsor of the Hegoalde Grand Slam Tournaments, is pretty worthless as a source of match information. Jai Alai World Tour links to player information, scores of  all Tournaments, and provides match articles (Noticias)

For videos, check EITB TV. Click on "Zesta Punta" and then "Jai Alai World Tour." EITB usually broadcasts semi-finals and finals only. At the time of this writing, (8/7/23) the semi-finals of the Gernika Grand Slam, held last weekend, have not been uploaded. 

IPARRALDE:

Coverage of the three main Grand Slam tournaments: Biarritz (Gant d'Or); St. Jean de Luz, and Pau (Pau Cup) can be found at Jai Alai News Facebook, but to get full coverage, here are the addresses you need.

For full schedule of all three tournaments, including scores, links to player information, individual player standings, and upcoming matches see the Cesta Punta Pro Tour Summer Tournament Web Page. Click on player names for more information about those players, and click on Classement for links to player standings for the overall Tournament and each separate tournament. 

Individual scoring is as follows

2-0=4 pts.; 2-1=3 pts.; 1-2=1 pt.; 0-2=0 pts.

For the Tournaments at St. Jean de Luz, click on "En savoir+" for short match articles (French). All but Master 1, Semi-final 1 have match articles. For Biarritz, there are no match articles. For Pau there are no match articles at the CPPT address but Section Paloise Pelote (scroll to "Programmes et Resultats du (weekend dates") provides match articles at the end of each weekend. Note that each  weekend's summary over-writes the summary from the weekend before, so there is no archive of these articles. 

For videos:  Commercial quality videos are for St. Jean de Luz (Canal +) (available at St. Jean de Luz Cesta Punta Youtube). These matches take place on TUESDAYS AND THURSDAYS and are streamed live (8:45 PM local time) and then on demand.

In an exciting new development Biarritz Gant d'Or Finals are now available Live (8:00 PM local time) and on demand at Cesta Punta Pro Tour Youtube. Finals are available for July 17 and August 7 at this time. The July 26 Final is not yet available at this time. These are commercial quality videos.

For videos of the other Tournaments.

Biarritz (Gand d'or): Semi-finals are streamed live (8:00 PM local time), and then on demand at  Cesta Punta  Gant d'or Facebook MONDAYS AND WEDNESDAYS. These are not commercial quality but they are good quality. Scores are called out (in French) but not every score is called out. The scores are also available in the chat that accompanies the video. 

Pau: Pau Cup matches (non commercial quality, but good quality) are available live and then on demand (9:00 PM local time) at Section Paloise Pelote Facebook on FRIDAYS. In addition to the Grand Slam partidos, the "hopefuls" quniella's are also streamed. (8:00 PM local time). For score and player information about the "hopeful" Tournaments see the Cesta Punta Pro Tour Hopeful Tournament Page. Note that there is little commentary during these matches.

There is no other Hopeful Tournament video coverage at this time.

The best way to use these resources is to use the main Tournament page to locate the matches you want to watch, and then use the video and match article sources to watch the matches and read the match articles.

For those of you who might have missed Fronton Mexico matches, a total of 22 FM Pro Tournament and women's matches full match videos are available at the FT Youtube site.

Enjoy.