Basque pelota blog in english – Dos paredes

Friday 10^th February, Urretxu

XALA – LASKURAIN beat ARITZ LASA – ZUBIETA 22-18

Pairs Championship

Aitor Zubieta spoke in the week of this game as a life or death encounter. He and Aritz Lasa, with two wins to their name, sat second from bottom in the table and points needed to come quickly in order to maintain any hope of qualifying for the last four. They had already beaten Xala and Laskurain, in their first match in the championship, and went to Lasa’s hometown of Urretxu with the confidence that they could strike again. However, despite a brave attempt to come from behind at the death, Xala and Laskurain had just a little bit more and Lasa and Zubieta are on the ropes. If they are to stand any chance, Lasa will have to do the job without Zubieta for the next few weeks; the defender has been ruled out with the hand problems which had plagued him throughout the championship and did so again here. For the victors, things are now looking a little more promising, and while they are still a long way off qualification, they can dare to dream.

Xala and Laskurain took the first two points, but Lasa and Zubieta gained the early advantage as they went ahead through an error apiece from the reds and two very well worked winners from Lasa. The signs looked promising; Lasa and Zubieta came out of the starting gate with pace, confidence and invention. However, this was to be the only time they led in the match. Their over ambition was perhaps the cause of their undoing in the next two points and having drawn level, the red pair kept going, building a 9-4 lead. Xala purred into form in this passage, nailing Lasa out wide , hitting a winning serve and finding an incredible angle for a dos paredes in answer to the same shot from his opposite number. He appeared calm personified in contrast to the local player, who demonstrated a will to seize points with both hands but too often rushed into shots and blew his chances. They maintained their gap and stretched it to six at 13-7, capitalising on three errors from Zubieta who after a solid and potent start, was starting to look troubled. Four points in a row from the blues, involving three errors from the leaders, two of which were largely unforced, put them back in touch at 11-13, but Zubieta was forced from the fronton for a medical timeout, lasting eight minutes.

When he returned, Xala was in no mood to be gentle, grabbing the five point lead back again almost singlehandedly, pushing a hapless Lasa around the fronton for three varied winners. 16-11 became 18-13 as Lasa and Zubieta undid the hard work of two points gained with two points thrown away. At 14-20, they looked dead in the water, but Lasa refused to die. A txoko and a service winner reduced the deficit by two and when Xala hit low, the door of opportunity opened a fraction. Lasa, all determination and fight, squeezed through the gap with a long, unreturnable serve and all of sudden they were firmly in touch. However, as he is wont to do, Lasa threw away his position of strength; a gantxo almost won him the next point and when Xala desperately pulled the return back in, all he had to do was tap a simple txoko to make it 19-20. He missed it, and instead of serving for parity found himself facing a match point. Another error, a ball hit wide, handed the game to Xala and Laskurain.

At the mid point, few can have predicted that the often frustratingly inconsistent Lasa and the ailing Zubieta would have made a game of it. Despite trailing almost throughout, they never gave up and pushed Xala and Laskurain all the way to the line. Taking the match as a whole, the eventual winners were clearly the better team, controlling the fronton with more ease and taking advantage of the chances they had. They will proceed to the next rotation with relief while Lasa sweats on the health of his partner and the daunting task ahead.

Scoring sequence: 2-0, 2-4, 9-4, 9-5, 11-5, 11-6, 12-6, 12-7, 13-7, 13-11, 16-11, 16-12, 18-12, 18-13, 18-14, 20-14, 20-18, 22-18.

Winners/errors: Xala 10/4, Lasa 10/6, Laskurain 0/4, Zubieta 0/6

Match time: 1:17.34 with 31.56 of actual playing time

Balls hit: 632

Zubieta and Lasa face a near impossible task

Image: mine

Share on Facebook

Friday 20^th January, Azpeitia

XALA – LASKURAIN beat SARALEGI – BEGINO 22-6

While Xala and Laskurain continue to improve week to week, matters for Arretxe and Begino get worse. Arretxe’s injury in the previous game meant a match forfeited and his replacement, Saralegi, proved unable to do anything to inspire Begino to the heights of which we know he is capabale. This was an annihilation, in which Xala hit with abandon on his way to eleven winners while the replacement forward appeared totally at a loss. Laskurain was far more potent than Begino and absolutely dominant at the back. It is hard to see where the bottom pair can go from here.

Saturday 21^st January, Logrono

TITIN III – MERINO II beat BENGOETXEA VI – APRAIZ 22-14

This was a surprisingly easy win for the home favourites at Adarraga. Titin and Merino’s advantage was comfortable throughout the game but for a small moment of worry at 13-11, with Merino the standout performer, putting immense pressure on Benogetxea who was never able to break free. Titin followed not far behind his apprentice in the quality stakes, making great use of the gantxo. Apraiz gave him far too much room to work with and he accepted every invitation.

Scoring sequence: 2-0, 2-1, 7-1, 7-2, 9-2, 9-5, 12-5, 12-8, 13-8, 13-11, 17-11, 17-13, 20-13, 20-14, 22-14

Monday 23^rd January, Tolosa

BERASALUZE VIII – ALBISU beat ARITZ LASA – ZUBIETA 22-17

This was an improvement on the previous week for Lasa and Zubieta, who led for a significant proportion of the match before being outdone at the death by the pair who are proving to be the best of the rest after the clear top two. Berasaluze proved the main instigator in the latter part of the game, where his determination and venom wrestled the initiative from the Aspe pair. Albisu, the young tournament debutante, appeared as comfortable as a veteran, supporting his more experienced partner with a calm grace.

Promocion Championship results were as follows: Olazabal-Larrinaga beat Rico IV-Mendizabal II* 22-18, Gorka-Arruti beat Olaetxea*-Aretxabaleta 22-21, Jaunarena-Merino beat Urrutikoetxea-Otxandorena* 22-10, Tainta-Argote beat Mendizabal III-Ladis Galarza 22-11.

A good week for Pablo Berasaluze

Image: mine

Share on Facebook

Monday 19th December, Tolosa

 

ARITZ LASA – ZUBIETA beat XALA – LASKURAIN 22-12

 

Extra interest in this match was added by the polemic which has surrounded Gonzalez’s non-selection in the past few days. Gonzalez yesterday apologised at an extremely earnest press conference for his tirade, in which he questioned the selection of Aritz Lasa and accused his bosses of using non-sporting criteria in a decision which smacked of favouritism. If Gonzalez hoped justification for his rage would come as a result of this match he must have been sorely disappointed, as Lasa had the measure of Xala, the Manomanista Champion and looked every inch at home in the exalted company of the elite pairs competition. The first half of the match was close with the couples tied at 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9, but from 10-11 the supposed underdogs played like anything but. Xala had extreme difficulty in moving the balls chosen by Lasa and Zubieta and grew more and more frustrated at his ability to break free. His fury flowed over at 10-14 when Lasa appeared marginally to block his path. When his protestations to the referee failed he threw his chair three rows back into the crowd in a fit of emotion all the more shocking for coming from a player who is usually so collected. Despite Xala’s meltdown however, the real difference between the pairs came in the back division, where 2010 champion Zubieta was solid as a rock and worked expertly with his partner to put Laskurain under pressure he proved unable to bear. It is early days in the competition, but Lasa and Zubieta have proved in no uncertain terms that they are a force to be reckoned with.

Scoring sequence: 0-1, 1-1, 1-2, 2-2, 4-2, 4-4, 4-6, 6-6, 7-6, 7-7, 8-7, 8-8, 9-8, 9-9, 9-11, 10-11, 10-14, 11-14, 11-20, 12-20, 12-22
Service winners/errors: Xala 2/2, Aritz Lasa 3/0
Winners/errors: Xala 5/2, Laskurain 1/6, Aritz Lasa 7/2, Zubieta 2/2
Match time: 60:10.30
Balls hit: 584

 

 

Lasa and Zubieta won at a canter

 

Photo: mine

 

 

Share on Facebook

In September I went to the Basque Country. I had only been there once before, on the holiday to Bilbao and San Sebastian in 2008 which so fuelled my passion, and had been meaning to return almost since the day I got home. This particular trip had been several months in the planning, borne of a series of musings with a friend on Twitter about how fabulous it would be to go to the Vuelta a Espana on its first visit to the Basque Country in so many years. Said friend is also a fan of pelota; we both watch the matches on ETB every Friday and Sunday and chat about them online, a weekly ritual to which we have become extremely attached. We therefore pondered on the possibility of combining it with a pelota match or two and gradually a hairbrain scheme became an actual plan, and then there were plane tickets and hotels booked. It was on!

Before alighting on Basque soil, we flew to Santander for the Vuelta stage on Peña Cabarga. You can read more about our cycling adventures in my two posts at Podium Café, here and here. We then took the bus to Bilbao, arriving at Termibus and from there our hotel at a late hour, exhausted from scaling the climb ahead of the cyclists in the blazing heat earlier in the day. Our pelota schedule had been planned out in advance, or as far in advance as the empresas allowed. Matches are rarely posted on their websites more than a week in advance, so it was all we could do to book our trip in the hope that the fixtures would be accessible. As the match listings trickled onto the internet, planning commenced with a vengeance and we quickly realised how very fortunate we had been, as all the venues, Bermeo, Lezama, Galdakao and Hondarribia, were relatively easily accessible. Much as a trip to Fortress Titin in Logroño would have been fun, it would have been a logistical nightmare!

Apart from the potential locations of the weekend’s matches, another of our chief worries was procuring tickets. Most matches are not sold out and are easy to get into on the door, but we were bothered by the possibility of not gaining entry to Saturday’s game in Galdakao as it was the farewell match of Oier Zearra and demand seemed high. Therefore, we used Thursday morning to catch the train to Galdakao and buy advance tickets. Easy. Or so we thought. Having worked out from where to catch the Euskotren, a new issue reared its head; Galdakao appeared on the maps to have two stations, Zuhatzu and Usansolo, and we had no idea which one was correct. When the train rumbled into Zuhatzu, we took the foolish and hasty decision that it just didn’t look right. However, when we arrived at Usansolo, it looked even less right. Having wandered in the direction in which we thought we ought to be going to reach the fronton for quite some time, we bit the bullet and turned on data roaming on the trusty iPhone, money escaping into a black hole as we scrolled. Yes, we were in an entirely separate town. And so we waited, and waited, for a train back in the direction from whence we had come. In the real Galdakao, the fronton was, thankfully, blindingly obvious.

Definitely a fronton

It was however less obvious how to buy tickets, there was no discernible box office, only a man in a bar who seemed understandably baffled, that two English types a) wanted pelota tickets, b) knew exactly when the match was, and c) knew who Oier Zearra was. The seats were indeed all sold out, but holding our prized standing tickets in our hands like precious and beautiful objects of awe, we returned with a hop and a skip to the station and awaited a train to Bermeo.

Waiting...and waiting...and waiting

The journey on the Euskotren to Bermeo was utterly beautiful, taking us through the archetypal verdant green valleys of Bizkaia to the emerging coastal marshes, the surfers’ paradise of Mundaka where the famous waves were rolling if rather small, and round the rocky outcrops to our destination. The station in Bermeo is right on the harbour and upon emerging, the beautiful vista of the little town with its bright fishing boats and blue sea meeting blue sky made me beam.

Bermeo

The fronton, Artza, sits in the centre of the panorama, but we had no idea of that at this point. So proceeded wild goose chase number two. In hindsight, we really should have printed out maps of how to get to frontons before leaving the UK, for our plan of finding a tourist information office and asking when we got there somewhat backfired. With a sigh, on went the iPhone yet again. Asegarce’s website helpfully gave us a postcode and Google Maps gave us a location. Bingo. Or so we thought. Having walked round and round the old town, up steps, down steps, back and forth, we realised that the GPS was seriously failing us and returned to the main square to ask a café owner to help us. With the help of our dubious Spanish, we ascertained that we had been right next to the fronton all along. And the fronton was next door to the Tourist Information. No matter, for we had plenty time, and went to buy some tickets from yet another slightly bemused local. We had also, in our panicked dash around the back streets, come to see what a truly lovely place Bermeo is.

A secluded square

I experienced a sense of overwhelming joy as we settled into a café with beer and pintxos, knowing that everything was sorted, and that I was going to see my first ever live pelota match in little over an hour. Walking into the fronton was almost surreal. I had seen the green walls and the white lines, heard the smack of the ball on hand and wall so many times via the internet that it seemed half normal and half totally bizarre to be there for real. When we entered, the players for the first match were warming up and I grinned both inside and out at the seemingly obvious realisation that these men were real people who actually existed, outside the confines of a computer screen in far off London. Artza is relatively small and we positioned ourselves a few rows back near the frontis, so very close to the action that it felt like we were an integral part of it. The first match saw a victory for Mendizabal III and Merino by 22 to 15 over Ongay and Ladis Galarza.

Mendizabal III prepares

My excitement was even more pronounced when the big guns came out to play, for match number two featured Martinez de Irujo and Zabaleta against Aritz Lasa and Zubieta. Zubieta has long been my hero in pelota terms and I make no secret of the fact that I was slightly over excited! As if that wasn’t enough, the great Irujo was almost in arm’s reach of my seat. As the match got underway, I was amazed by the speed and power of these players, something which fails to come across so readily on a computer screen. It is truly staggering how far and how hard the defenders hit the ball, and with how much venom the forwards attack it. Another thing which isn’t so obvious online is the noise when the hand hits the ball. This is a tough sport. The main match started tightly, the players trading blows until disaster struck with Lasa and Zubieta 10-8 up. Zabaleta, who looked mortified, accidentally hit Lasa on the head, and the forward fell to the ground in pain and shock before being helped off by his fellow players. Concerned murmuring swelled up in the crowd. Lasa was taken away in an ambulance for checks, and was susequently out of competition for several weeks with a cracked facial bone. With Lasa gone, the organisers hastily arranged a shortened Cuatro y Medio game between Irujo and Zubieta. This was a lot of fun. Until now, the crowd had had little over which to get exercised, but all it took was a bad call against Zubieta and the place erupted into a frenzy, the vast majority on the side of the wronged player. The atmosphere was infectious and thrilling, even though this was a match which counted for very little. Irujo eventually took advantage of some wayward serving from his opponent to win 12-8, but at the end both players were all smiles, having put on a highly enjoyable and high octane show.

Lasa and Zubieta warm up

Zubieta eyes up the ball

The great Irujo

Lasa ties his shoe

Zubieta and Lasa concentrate

Ready to play

The competition over, we left the fronton into a balmy evening and the fresh smell of the sea air. Bermeo’s summer fiesta was underway with music, food and general merriment but sadly we needed to return to Bilbao and the train would not wait. Already our thoughts turned to our packed programme for the following day. We had no idea quite how special Friday would turn out to be.

Goodbye Bermeo

Look out for Part 2, coming soon! Photos are all mine

Share on Facebook

Friday 14th October, Urretxu

RETEGI BI beat ARITZ LASA 22-16

Aritz Lasa was afforded the luxury of playing in his home town on Sunday, in front of his fans and friends. However, despite their best efforts to help him raise his game, he failed to progress to the third stage of the Cuatro y Medio championship. From his brief 4-3 lead onwards, he was always playing catch up to his Navarrese opponent and despite threatening a comeback in the latter stages of the game, always looked second best.

The early points were strongly contested. Despite losing the first two, Lasa fought gamely and turned his small deficit into a 4-2 lead, answering Retegi’s strong service with a sakez of his own and turning a desperate attempt to save a txoko into a cross court winner. Retegi, despite coming roaring out of the blocks, made errors, induced by Lasa’s tactic of pushing him as far back as possible to avoid close engagement at the frontis. However, Retegi then went into overdrive, winning ten points in a row to go from 2-4 down to 12-4 up. Four of these points were won with serves, which Lasa seemed incapable of reading. Retegi twice caught his opponent well out of position, driving easy winners home, and Lasa was not immune to digging his own grave, as he showed with the point on 4-4 where he completely missed the ball down the side wall with the point at his mercy. From 4-12 down, Lasa regained a modicum of composure, pulling affairs back to 7-12. A gantxo from the local boy made the crowd come alive and his serve also began to fire, but sadly for the Urretxu faithful, he wasted a golden opportunity to make progress with an aimless wide ball, ceding the momentum back to Retegi.

Lasa picked up points in ones and twos but his rival began to extend his lead, moving to 16-9 by pushing Lasa back and aiming into space with a classy overarm and a powerful drive. His confidence was clearly high and perhaps boiled over when ambition forced him wide at his next attempt. Lasa came back to within four points at 12-16, producing some textbook serves, but then once again wasted his opening, carelessly leaving a ball he thought was going long. When it did not, he held his head in his hands, along with the majority of his townsfolk, knowing full well the crucial nature of his error. He continued to keep Retegi on a tight rein, closing 14-17 with a stinging gantxo and 16-19 by means of a clever drop, but Retegi was always in control and had the power to change gear and close the match out. Feeling his rival’s breath on his neck, he won three straight points with two drops to the corner and an error from Lasa in a point where the loser put up a brave fight, just as he had all the match long. Lasa’s supporters rued his inability to rekindle the form he found to crush Urrutikoetxea the previous week, against a player full of confidence and calm. Retegi Bi will now meet Barriola for a place in the semi finals.

Scoring sequence: 2-0, 2-4, 3-4, 4-4, 12-4, 12-7, 13-7, 13-9, 14-9, 16-9, 16-12, 17-12, 17-14, 18-14, 18-15, 19-15, 19-16, 22-16.

The victorious Julen Retegi

Image from: Noticias de Navarra, by Ainara Garcia

Share on Facebook

Friday 7^th October, Antzuola

ARITZ LASA beat URRUTIKOETXEA 22-5

The task of opening the 2011 Cuatro y Medio Championship fell to Aritz Lasa and Mikel Urrutikoetxea, in a match which on paper at least looked evenly matched and very hard to call. A straw poll of observers before the game seemed to come down on the side of Urrutikoetxea, who had pulled off an impressive run in 2010, but in the end it was Aritz Lasa who stormed through. Lasa has blown hot and cold of late, but proved that when he is on song he can be very classy indeed.

The first four points set the tone for the match and Urrutikoetxea never recovered. Lasa signalled his intent with an opening salvo crowned by a searing gantxo winner. This was followed by a service winner, the first of seven, another gantxo and a well worked point in which he tapped the ball gently to the corner before passing Urrutikoetxea powerfully on his right. The younger player inspired confidence of a comeback in his fans with a winner down the wall, but it was not to be as Lasa marched onwards with further force. Urrutikoetxea managed only once to string a pair of points together, at 2-7 and 3-7. His second winner came from a volley close to the frontis and his third from an excellent cross court volley from a diving lunge, but for his remaining points he had to rely on rare moments of carelessness from Lasa. Those aside, Lasa was utterly dominant. 21 of his points came from outright winners, a staggering statistic even in Cuatro y Medio, where winner counts can be on the higher side. Not only were his winners numerous, they were varied, showing off the whole range of the pelotari’s armoury, from volleys, drops and hooks to steepling balls over his opponent’s head.

Urrutikoetxea looked utterly hapless, without a hope tactically and without any potent weapons. This was a surprise given his proven talent and promise, but he has many years ahead to fulfil his potential. Lasa, for his part, proceeds to the quarter finals where he will face Retegi Bi. It remains to be seen whether he can pull off back to back matches of such excellence, but he will have the home advantage; the encounter will take place in his own town of Urretxu.

Scoring sequence: 4-0, 4-1, 7-1, 7-3, 11-3, 11-4, 17-4, 17-5,  22-5.

Lasa barely broke a sweat

Photo: mine

Share on Facebook

Friday 29^th April, Ascain

IDOATE beat GONZALEZ 22-19

The Manomanista Championship moved to the home town of Sebastien Gonzalez for this second round match, and the local fans expected nothing less than a win for their man, playing under the glowering presence of a gigantic picture of himself. The match was a great spectacle, with strings of marathon rallies, each player aiming to fight the other into the ground. Gonzelez played excellently, but thanks to the skill of the classy and ever improving young Mikel Idoate, the victory eluded him.

The older player, much to the delight of his supporters, started the better of the two. The first point was long and involved, a taste of what was to come, but Gonzalez delivered a statement of intent, seizing it with a brutal gantxo. He proceeded to 3-1 and 4-2 thanks to some solid serving and an error from Idoate, but errors of his own, plus and service winner and a txoko gave his opponent the lead at 4-5. Idoate almost moved two ahead with a near inspired shot into the corner, which he seemed amazed had missed, and perhaps rejoicing in his let off, Gonzalez forged ahead once again, to 9-5. At this point, Gonzalez looked fully in charge. He showed his ability to get past his rival almost any way he pleased, whether to the left, to the right, or over his head.

However, Idoate, sensing the game might be slipping from his grasp, showed his mettle with some stunning play, winning eight points in a row to turn the match on its head. In the point on 9-5, Gonzalez appeared to have him where he wanted him, pinned back and open to the drop. Idoate though, replied with a staggering dos paredes to grab the point for himself. The next point, which he won with an inspired drive to the corner from deep, was no less virtuosic. He proceeded with a service winner and a drop, before running rings round Gonzalez with a txoko followed by a long ball when he was still sprawling by the frontis. When Gonzalez hit low, it was 9-13 and he was visibly demoralised.

Again, however, the momentum swung, as Gonzalez kick started his recovery with an airez, breaking Idoate’s sustained and impressive defence. Thanks in the most part to the strength of his serve and the resulting easy winners, he pegged the scoreboard back to 13-13. The protagonists could not be separated and found themselves tied again at 14 and 15 apiece. Once again, Gonzalez appeared to have broken the resolve of his young opponent, going ahead with a winner from a txoko he barely managed to scrape off the floor. He opened up a three point gap after a long scrap at 18-15, but Idoate would not be bowed. Showing incredible determination and no fear of Gonzalez’s greater experience he stormed back, winning six of the next seven points, and demonstrating the full gamut of winners in the process, to take the tie 22-19. He now plays Asier Olaizola, who is returning from a knee injury, on Saturday, and on this showing, may have the measure of him.

Scoring sequence: 1-0/ 2-1/ 3-1/ 3-2/ 4-2/ 4/ 5/ 6-5/ 7-5/ 8-5/ 9-6/ 9-8/ 9/ 9-10/ 9-11/ 9-12/ 9-13/ 10-13/ 13/ 13-14/ 14/ 15/ 16-15/ 18-15/ 18/ 18-19/ 19/ 19-22

Match time: 55 minutes, with 13 minutes of actual play.

Balls hit: 307

Winners: Idoate 15, Gonzalez 11

Service winners: Idoate 4, Gonzalez 1

Errors: Idoate 3, Gonzalez 7

Talented and determined: Mikel Idoate

The other Manomanista second round results, in brief, were as follows:

OLAIZOLA II beat MERINO II 22-5 (Saturday 30th April, Labrit) This was a demolition job by Aimar Olaizola, the rampant pairs champion, and David Merino looked resigned from an early stage. There was nothing Merino could do about the dominance of the Olaizola serve, and when he did manage to enter into a rally, he was more often than not sunk by the best gantxo in the game. Olaizola now plays Irujo, in a match up many would perhaps rather see in the final.

RETEGI BI beat URRUTIKOETXEA 22-15 (Saturday 30th April, Amorebieta) Asegarce’s young charge Urrutikoetxea is known for his fighting qualities, and he took the game to the more fancied Retegi Bi in some well contested rallies. However, the Aspe player showed the greater imagination, and proved the better able to deal with the pressure, moving relatively easily into the quarter finals, where he meets Xala.

BENGOETXEA VI beat ARITZ LASA 22-10 (Sunday 1st May, Eibar)This match was a harder fight than the scoreline might indicate. The first part of the encounter saw Lasa holding on gamely to Bengoetxea’s onslaught, but the latter showed himself to be in a different class thereafter, moving unimpeded from 9-8 to 17-8. There was no way back for the underdog, but he gave his many fans, who had made the trip from his home town of Urretxu, much to cheer about with his refusal to throw in the towel.

The quarter final line up now looks like this: OLAIZOLA I v IDOATE (Saturday 7^th May, Pamplona), XALA v RETEGI BI (Sunday 8^th May, Eibar), PATXI RUIZ v BENGOETXEA VI (Sunday 15^th May, TBC), MARTINEZ DE IRUJO v OLAIZOLA II (Sunday 15^th May, TBC).

In the Promocion Championship, JAUNARENA beat LADIS GALARZA 22-18, and OLAETXEA beat LEIZA 22-2. ARGOTE  proceeds by default following an injury to OLAZABAL. PENAGARIKANO and RICO IV play today in Legazpi.

Image from Noticias de Navarra

Share on Facebook

As reported previously, MERINO II beat ALBISU 22-21 on Sunday. Alas I do not have time to write on every match of the weekend, so here is a round up of the other Manomanista first round results in brief.

22/4/11, Pamplona: IDOATE beat BELOKI 22-4 Many pundits believed the young and supremely promising Idoate would beat Beloki, but few would have predicted the scale of the thrashing he handed out to the 36 year old four time champion. Idoate, who is all of 21, dominated the veteran in every facet of the game, suggesting that his time might soon be upon us. However, to progress further, he will need to defeat Gonzalez in Ascain on Friday.

23/4/11, Haro: URRUTIKOETXEA beat BEROIZ 22-18 This must rank as an upset. 21 year old Beroiz has been regarded as Aspe’s champion in waiting for over a year now, so strong and assured is he for his age. However, Asegarce’s Mikel Urrutikoetxea, who is also 21, put paid to any ambitions for this year with a battling performance to fell him at the opening stage. He will now play Retegi Bi in Amorebieta on Saturday, and he must rate his chances.

25/4/11, Eibar: ARITZ LASA beat ARRETXE II 22-16 This was a close match in which there were several ties on the scoreboard. Both played quality pelota, but in the end, Lasa’s strength won the day and Arretxe was forced to concede after a marvellous fight. Lasa will now play Bengoetxea VI in Eibar on Sunday for a place in the last four.

 In the Promocion championship, Ladis Galarza beat Iza 22-10, Argote beat Gorka 22-10, Rico IV beat Cecilio 22-13, and Olaetxea beat Zabaleta 22-18. In the second round, Ladis Galarza plays Jaunarena, Argote plays Olazabal, Rico IV plays Pengarikano, and Olaetxea plays Leiza.

Urrutikoetxea did for the fancied Beroiz

Image from Asegarce

Share on Facebook

Sunday 16th January, Eibar

OLAIZOLA II – BEGINO beat ARITZ LASA – MERINO II 22-15

At the start of the week, this match was anticipated as the first meeting, not only in the 2011 championship but for a long while, of the two great rival forwards, Aimar Olaizola and Juan Martinez de Irujo. When it was announced that Irujo had not recovered in time from his hand problem, many doubtless emitted sighs of disappointment. However, nobody who saw the display at Astelena on Sunday can have left feeling short changed, for the game was scintillating from first until last. Although the unbeaten pairing of Olaizola and Begino in the end had a gear in reserve, nobody expected replacement Lasa, and thrilling young talent David Merino to exert the pressure they did.

In their first two matches, Aritz Begino had been the match winner for the Asegarce partnership, wearing their opponents down with sheer accuracy and dominance from the back of the fronton. However, on Sunday the match winner was Aimar, who finished the game with not one single error to his name. Aritz Lasa, determined to show that he is more than a second choice forward, threw everything at Goizueta’s finest but Aimar was in domineering mood and heaped pressure upon pressure. Lasa pulled off some startling winners, none more strident than the whipped airez which gave him the opening point, but Aimar forced him to take risks, and errors accompanied the flashes of brilliance. Time and again, he sent the blue pair into freefall. On occasion, such as on 5-8, and again at 9-12, they escaped drowning with all or nothing defence, and many of the mid-match rallies were extremely evenly matched, to the extent that they seemed as if they would last for eternity. The points on 12-9 and 12-10, for example, were titanic in scale, the latter in particular, but from 14-16, at which point they were very much still in the game, the constant barrage heaped upon Lasa and Merino began to tell. Lasa blew an easy chance for a txoko winner, and all defiance crumbled, as Aimar called the shots. The point on 19-14, in which Lasa and Merino found themselves the wrong way round just as Begino found the rebote, was symptomatic of their inability to match the increased tempo of the reds. Lasa held a candle to Aimar in patches, but the latter was too intelligent, too astute, and too relentlessly accurate to emulate.

Despite the loss, plaudits rained on David Merino, who at 20 is drawing comparisons with the greatest left-handers of the age. He kept pace with the far more experienced Begino, drawing gasps with his ability to return the ball from the furthest and unlikeliest of places. The errors came as the pressure grew, but at the outset at least, it was the young Riojan who looked the most assured of the defenders. In the end, the two were fairly evenly matched, but Merino it is who is making the headlines, for his promise, his elegance and his fearlessness. He has come of age since the debacle of his opening match with Irujo, and it will be fascinating to see if he can continue in this spirit when his original partner returns.

Olaizola and Begino remain unbeaten, and alongside Xala and Barriola must have moved into favouritism for the championship win. They combine experience, consistency, brilliance, intelligence and coolness in equal measure, and will be hard to stop. Lasa and Merino demonstrated here that in individual points at least, they can be tested, but they were also unable to respond when the heat was turned up. The championship is but young and fortunes can change like the tide, but a clear marker has been laid by the aces of the Asegarce pack.

Scoring sequence: 0-3, 1-3, 1-4, 2-4, 2-5, 8-5, 8-6, 9-6, 9-8, 12-8, 12-10, 14-10, 14-11, 16-11, 16-14, 20-14, 20-15, 22-15.

Winners: Olaizola II 7, Begino 3, Aritz Lasa 8, Merino II 3

Errors: Olaizola II 0, Begino 4, Aritz Lasa 6, Merino II 5

Match time: 75.03 minutes, with 33.46 minutes of actual playing time

Balls played: 681

Aimar Olaizola: astute and relentless

Image from Diario Vasco, by Jose Carlos Cordovilla

Share on Facebook

Sunday 9th January, Logrono

ARITZ LASA – MERINO II beat TITIN III – PASCUAL 22-21

Nobody in their right mind gave Aritz Lasa and David Merino much hope ahead of yesterday’s tie at Adarraga. Lasa, standing in for Martinez de Irujo and his injured hand, was reckoned a lowly substitute in comparison with the champion he replaced, and given that the original combination had received a mauling in their first game, their cause seemed hopeless. Neither could one stand by the contention that the pair would be better than the sum of their parts, as the two men had little or no track record as a combination. Facing them were local titan Titin, and Inigo Pascual, a seasoned pairing and wise heads on experienced shoulders. They, in contrast, had won their first match, against the effervescent Berasaluze VIII and Apraiz, and the second looked ripe for the taking. However, nobody could have written the script for what was to follow.

Lasa and Merino, full of blind hope, blitzed the first portion of the game with a little help from Pascual. Belying the future path of the encounter, Titin seized the opening point with a stunning airez, but the next seven points went the way of the underdogs. Amazingly, the first four of them came from Pascual errors; the usually solid defender had mislaid his radar with a vengeance, unable to find the frontis from any angle or distance. If the first four of their points were handed to them on a plate, the next two demonstrated that the reds were nobody’s fools, taken as they were by two Lasa gantxos, perfectly engineered by both players to leave Titin sprawling in desperation. When Lasa missed a ball flush with the side wall, it seemed as if the favourites might restore some order, but he and Merino marched on in continuing confidence. Lasa continued where he had left off and continued to give Titin the runaround, and an ever more assured Merino worked Pascual over until he crumbled yet again. The point on 9-2 demonstrated just how far Titin and Pascual had fallen, when the former left a ball for the latter, who was nowhere to be seen. A bad day morphed into a farce, and at 13-3 the game looked up; not only were the reds proving to be a well oiled partnership, but the inexperienced Merino’s awareness and reading of the game were exemplary when compared to Pascual’s catastrophic efforts.

However, Titin and Pascual had obviously read the proverb about the fat lady, for the game changed in the blinking of an eye; Lasa and Merino’s slide to 15-15 from a position of such dominance is testament in the main to the never-say-die attitude of Titin. The wily veteran served up individual brilliance to end the point scoring party of the reds, whipping a gantxo out wide to Lasa, whose creditable but shallow return left his partner high and dry. Lasa then succumbed to the same disease which had so afflicted Pascual and missed two simple balls, before Titin, dealing his preferred balls, produced two quickfire service winners and two matter-of-fact txokos. As the reds fell into disarray, miscuing at will and out of position, the blues raced to parity.

The result now seemed a foregone conclusion; the greener pair had had their moment in the sun and the correct order had been restored. However, this was to underestimate the sheer willpower and desire to succeed of Lasa and the youthfully determined Merino, who were in no mood to let their opponents’ momentum gather apace. Instead, they clung on, trading point for point in a grim battle. The favourites took a two point lead at 15-17 thanks to a third fluffed txoko from Lasa and the implosion of a bombarded Merino, but they fought from behind to 17-17 and then 18-18. Again, however, they let their guard slip, two errors from the young defender sending Titin and Pascual to the edge of triumph. Surely at 18-21 there was no way back for the game underdogs? But with Adarraga, filled almost equally with Titin’s tifosi and friends of the younger local boy Merino, in full cry, the game tipped into fever pitch as the red pair saved all three match points thanks to two errors from Titin and a terrifyingly tense exchange, brilliantly won with an overarm swipe by an ecstatic Lasa. In comparison with the point which took the game to 21-21, the final rally was something of an anti-climax in terms of quality, but when Titin, diving in despair, hit low, there was nothing muted about the reaction of the victors.

As a game of pelota, the Riojan faithful witnessed both the sublime and the ridiculous, a curate’s egg, but as a spectacle there will surely be few games in the 2011 championship to match it. Both pairs swung from one extreme both of quality and emotion to the other, but finished almost equal in rating. Lasa and Titin were both inspired and stilted in equal measure, and Titin managed more winners than Lasa but also committed more errors. In the back division, the distinction was clearer. Merino was by no means immune to failure, but he was easily the more potent of the two. Pascual demonstrated his superb ability at fielding the long ball on numerous occasions, but he was far too error prone for this to be a factor. Merino was the cooler, the more assured and the more tactically astute, a fact which will boost his confidence no end after the previous week’s drubbing. Many were quick to condemn the Irujo-Merino experiment then, but with the return of the champion when fully recovered, who is to say that greater heights may not be reached?

Scoring sequence: 0-1, 7-1, 7-2, 12-2, 12-3, 13-3, 13-10, 14-10, 14-14, 15-14, 15-15, 15-17, 17-17, 17-18, 18-18, 18-21, 22-21.

Winners: Lasa 9, Titin 13, Merino 1, Pascual 0

Errors: Lasa 4, Titin 6, Merino 4, Pascual 6

Merino II held his nerve

Image from La Rioja, by Jonathan Herreros

Share on Facebook