Basque pelota blog in english – Dos paredes

(You can read Part 1 HERE!)

We awoke on Friday morning to brilliant blue skies. The Basque Country was in the throws of a heat wave and it was set to continue. Our first port of call in an action packed day was a visit to the EiTB offices where we would meet my contact there, Igor Lansorena, and be shown around. My blog has been hosted by EiTB for over two years now and it was fabulous to see where the organisation operates and how everything works, as well as to meet the person with whom I’ve exchanged so many emails over the months! As well as all the offices, we had a look at the news studios, so familiar from ETB Sat. Here I am, pulling my best Serious News Reader Face:

Trying to look the part

Up until the evening, cycling filled the agenda, for this was the day the Vuelta a Espana returned to the Basque Country for the first time in 33 years. It was a special day on so very many levels and even now, looking back, I can hardly believe we experienced what we did; Euskaltel Euskadi’s Igor Anton, from Galdakao, just a few kilometres outside Bilbao, broke away on his own roads in front of friends and family to win on the Gran Via amidst scenes of collective and uproarious joy. The sight of the small and somehow vulnerable figure, celebrating as he rode through a sea of orange and ikurriñas was both beautiful and moving, something we felt highly privileged to have witnessed. I won’t go into too much more detail here, as I wrote about it on the cycling blog Podium Café; take a look at that for more outpourings of my Euskaltel love! This historic win would have been quite enough to make our day one to remember, but there was still pelota to come…

Local boy Igor Anton is just slightly happy

After the cycling, we walked back to the EiTB offices to meet Igor (Lansorena rather than Anton, who was presumably still beaming in the midst of a packed press room at this point) who was going to drive us to Lezama for the evening’s televised matches. It certainly felt surreal to be attending rather than watching back at home in the usual Friday evening slot. Lezama is a short drive from Bilbao and is known mainly for being home of the Athletic Bilbao training grounds, but football is not the only sport to be practised here and we arrived in plenty time at the small and slightly provincial feeling fronton. This fixture had a decidedly local feel to it; players were jogging around in the car park and we stepped straight from the outside virtually onto the playing area to take out seats. I came to love the immediacy of pelota, the fact that such great athletes are so close and so accessible. We were in Lezama not as ‘public’ but as guests of EiTB, and the first moment of the evening to make me grin from ear to ear was an introduction to Xabier Euzkitze, pelota presenter and commentator whose voice I knew so well. It felt like a great honour and I was so touched when he told me he knew about this blog. I truly felt welcome and at home in a foreign land.

There were two games on the menu for the evening. The first was between Apezetxea and Larrinaga, and Jaunarena and Merino, the former pairing winning 22-19. I don’t remember all that much about the game itself, but I certainly recall the moment not far into it when I saw a man approaching from my left with a video camera and a microphone. Now, I know they like to interview members of the crowd at matches, but they usually pick upon former players, people from the empresas and the like. Now it seemed the target was me and my jaw nearly hit the floor. I suppose I can understand why an English girl watching pelota in Lezama is considered out of the ordinary, especially when she runs a blog on it! I had no time to think of what to say so I’m sure I didn’t sound at all erudite, but I don’t think I said anything too unfortunate. Once again I was overwhelmingly flattered and excited, and couldn’t stop grinning. Amusingly, when we got back to Bilbao later that night, my friend turned on the TV while I was in the bathroom and hollered through the door at me that I was on it. Out I rushed to see my face on the screen and hear my very English accent ringing around the room. I’ve maybe used the word ‘surreal’ too many times, but please can I use it again here?!

In the second match, Retegi Bi and Zubieta beat Titin III and Zabaleta 22-13. We had seen Zabaleta accidentally injure Aritz Lasa the night before, and tonight it was his turn to do himself a mischief, landing literally at my feet on his right shoulder before leaving the fronton for treatment. Thankfully for him, he was able to return, but could not prevent Retegi and Zubieta from taking a classy win.

After 'The Interview'

Lezama

Merino

Titin

On Saturday, we went to Oier Zearra’s farewell match in his home town of Galdakao. I won’t write about that as I did a separate post on it, which you can read here. I felt it really deserved its own piece.

Sunday was our final full day in the Basque Country and for the first time, we left Bizkaia. The day’s matches, televised by ETB, were in Hondarribia which nestles up against the French border, across the estuary from Hendaye. We left Bilbao in the morning on the bus to San Sebastian, along with legions of people wearing the bottle green supporters’ garments of Kaiku, for today it was the famous Bandera de la Concha, one of the greatest of the traditional summer rowing competitions which are held up and down the Basque coast each. When we arrived in San Sebastian we realised swiftly just how big this day was in the local calendar. Kaiku’s fans were joined by those of all the other boats, including many for the eventually victorious Urdaibai, creating a colourful and good natured throng. We failed to see much at all of the actual competition save a boat or two in the distance, but merely being there was a fabulous experience.

A boat!

Lots of people

We saw....very little!

The heaving old city

However, we couldn’t while away the day in San Sebastian, beautiful and vibrant though it was, for we had to catch another bus to Hondarribia. We got there intentionally early in order to have a look around the old town, and we found yet another Basque gem, full of cobbled streets and gorgeous traditional houses, overlooking the water in one direction and the mountains in the other. Hondarribia, seemingly like almost everywhere else, was in the midst of its fiesta and food and drink was flowing in its pintxo bars.

Hondarribia's old town

Cobbled street

In advance of the 5pm start time, we made the short walk to the fronton, which is on the edge of the town centre, outside its old protective walls. Hondarribia’s fronton was the largest one we had been to and it was almost full. It felt far more like a big sporting event than the other, rather cosier feeling evenings in smaller frontons had. We sat further from the frontis this time, in order to get the defenders’ perspective and gain an understanding for the vast distance they are required to hit.  In the first match of the evening, Zabaleta put his bad week behind him, teaming up with Gorka to beat Idoate and Cecilio 22-19.

Xabier Euzkitze got a helping hand from Abel Barriola

Idoate

Zabaleta throws to Idoate

Idoate and Zabaleta discuss

Gorka is interviewed

The feature match once again included my favourite Zubieta, this time playing with Xala with whom he won the Pairs Championship in 2010. We were very excited to see this Rolls Royce of a couple in action, but they failed to fire with Xala especially off colour, losing to Irujo and Pascual 22-13. This was a small disappointment, both to me and to the middle aged woman on my right who was either Zubieta’s mother or was madly in love with him. Much to our amusement, his every strike of the ball was met with a whispered ‘aupa Aitor!’ from the terribly tense sweaty palmed fan, and his every error with a shriek of dismay.

Irujo smiles

All set

A laughing Manomanista Champion, Xala

Children take to the fronton once the pros have left

When the last point came to an end, hands had been shaken and the players had retreated out of sight, I felt suddenly empty and rather sad. It was over. We hung around the fronton like lost souls, wandering onto the playing area to take in every vista, to commit everything to memory. We were just about to leave when Zubieta, still in kit, came jogging past. With pure reflex action, I somehow managed to ask him for a photograph in some bizarre mixture of Spanish, English and a little Basque. He apologised for having to run straight to a TV interview but came over when he was finished and happily posed for me. I have little clue what he said, but he was delightful. Milesker Aitor! Zabaleta also smiled for the camera. And so, that really was it. The next morning we were back in England, a little numb and a little sad, but brimming over with wonderful memories, of people, places and sporting action as well as a greater appreciation for the culture, the rhythms and the soul of Euskadi and its wonderful sport of pelota. I will be back, and soon.

No caption needed!

Zabaleta, relaxed

All photos are mine

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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

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Add two great pelotaris to a swell of guitars, dance beats and swaying villagers, gathered around a fronton from a bygone era, and you get the new music video from Arrebote, designed as a vehicle for their song, ‘La mejor dejada’. Arrebote was formed four years ago in the Navarrese town of Alsasua. Member Iñigo Muñoa, who came to know the rhythms of the rumba catalana as a child hearing gypsies sing on his family’s travels, is a friend of Aitor Zubieta who lives in nearby Etxarri-Arantz. Zubieta agreed to appear and spoke to Juan Martinez de Irujo, who also became involved in the project. The result is a 3 1/2 minute video following a group of friends who attend a pelota match, along with botilleros, bookmakers, a priest and an officer of the Guardia Civil. The technical production in this very home-grown project is the handiwork of another villager, Javier Galeano.

Watch the finished product here!

Image from Deia

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BERASALUZE VIII – BEGINO beat TITIN III – ZUBIETA 22-17

Pablo Berasaluze and Aritz Begino won the inaugural Torneo Aste Nagusia in Bilbao on Saturday, with victory over Titin III and Aitor Zubieta, the latter standing in for David Merino who was suffering with a fever. Bizkaia was full to the rafters, producing a superb atmosphere, and the pelotaris did not disappoint with both pairs playing extremely well. For the majority of the encounter, the pairs were very evenly matched and were level at 6, 8, 9, 10, 13 and 14 but from 14-14 Berasaluze sprang into action, grasping the game with both hands. He was easily the player of the match, and ably supported as he was by Begino, there was little Titin and Zubieta could do to stop progress. He finished with 14 winners to Titin’s 11, in sealing Asegarce’s fifth tournament win of the summer.

Scoring sequence: 0-3/ 1-3/ 2-3/ 2-6/ 6/ 6-8/ 8/ 9/ 10/ 13-10/ 13/ 14-13/ 14/ 14-20/ 17-20/ 17-21/ 17-22

Titin: no service winners, 11 winners, Zubieta: 1 winner, Berasaluze: 2 service winners, 1 service error, 12 winners, Begino: 3 winners

Match time: 59 minutes

Balls hit: 379

Pablo Berasaluze led from the front

Image from Diario de Burgos, source Aspe

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Tuesday 23^rd August, San Sebastian

MARTINEZ DE IRUJO – ZUBIETA beat XALA – LASKURAIN 22-19

The final of the Torneo Ciudad de San Sebastian was a strange match, exciting not for its quality but for its unpredictability and its closeness. Both forwards hit winners aplenty, many of them stunningly executed, but also made myriad mistakes. There was little to choose between them at the end of the match, and it was the defenders, while less noticeable, who held the key to the fortunes of the opposing sides. Both Irujo and Zubieta began shakily, but Irujo’s recovery came concurrently with the return of Zubieta’s poise. The man from Etxarri-Aranatz, playing without a knee brace for the first time since his operation, hit the heights as the match progressed, producing both the game plan and the execution to push his pair over the finish line. Laskurain, despite being marginally shaded here, was named man of the tournament, confirming the week as one in which the defenders truly shone.

The match started very evenly indeed, with each player showing both good and bad in turn. From 2-2 though, it was Xala and Laskurain who put their feet on the pedal, advancing to 10-5 which some calm, while Irujo increasingly lost the plot. His error on 2-3 resulted in him hurling the ball furiously at the frontis, sending officials ducking, and the mistakes kept coming, a low volley negating some excellent long returns from Zubieta, a failure to return an eminently reachable gantxo, a miscue down the wall and a wild cross court swipe leading to a five-point deficit. Zubieta also contributed to the rot by hitting high twice, and the red pair barely needed to extend themselves to maintain their margin.

However, the ride turned when Laskurain momentarily lost his touch and hit high. Irujo and Zubieta took four points in a row to close to 9-10, aided by two errors from Xala. Xala, clearly annoyed by his lapses, seized the initiative back with a devastating spell of three cross court winners. He then bombed Zubieta, who fell short with a long strike, and the five-point advantage was restored. But again Irujo and Zubieta came back, their latest recovery also kick started by an error from Laskurain. Irujo increasingly brought his trump cards to the table, aided by a partner in Zubieta who was starting to fire on all cylinders. His pressure led directly to errors from both his opponents, and he found ever more depth to force Laskurain onto the back foot. They drew level at 15-15 thanks to one such Laskurain failure, and when a txoko from Irujo put them ahead, Zubieta clapped vigorously, knowing the momentum was with them. Supported wonderfully from the back, Irujo produced a txoko and an inspired skimming dos paredes borne of pure reflex to give them a 15-19 advantage.

The next two points went to Xala and Laskurain, as Irujo proved with two errors that his conversion to form was not complete, the first throwing away a point in which Laskurain had been very much on the run. A service winner from Xala reduced the gap to one point at 19-18, but Zubieta unleashed a wonderful ball over his rival’s head, the icing on the cake of a mad scramble beneath the frontis from all parties. Xala was to have the final say in the match; he gave his pair some hope with a nonchalant cross court winner, on match point, but undid it with a wild and wide ball to give the match to the blues by a three point margin. A game shaped by errors ended most aptly.

Scoring sequence: 2-0, 2-2, 4-2, 4-3, 7-3, 7-4, 9-4, 9-5, 10-5, 10-9, 14-9, 14-11, 15-11, 15-19, 18-19, 18-21, 19-21, 19-22

Winners/errors: Irujo 7/8, Xala 7/6, Zubieta 2/3, Laskurain 0/5

Match time: 64:23

Balls hit: 515

The fully recovered Aitor Zubieta

Image from: Deia, by David de Haro

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Friday 19^th August, San Sebastian

XALA – LASKURAIN beat OLAIZOLA II – BEGINO 22-18

The first San Sebastian semi-final ended with a far tighter score line than might have been expected. Xala and Laskurain proceeded to today’s final at the expense of Olaizola II and Begino, but what had looked like an easy win was momentarily put in jeopardy by a comeback which almost gave the reigning Pairs Champions licence to dream. The early part of the game was close, with the pairs tied at 1-1, 2-2, 4-4, 5-5 and 6-6. Both forwards looked as if they were shaping up for an epic duel. Four of Olaizola and Begino’s six points in this spell came from the former’s brutal airez, which he seemed able to sling into open space at will. Xala replied to his virtuosity with some wonderful tactical play, showing himself capable of wrong footing Olaizola, and countered his opponent’s venom with some most improbable defensive efforts. Begino made a brace of errors and Laskurain one, but generally speaking, both defenders seemed the perfect foils for their attacking forwards.

However, Xala and Laskurain broke the deadlock. They edged ahead when Begino was rendered completely baffled by a ball he imagined Aimar would take. Xala’s two txoko winners, separated by a missed attempt at the same shot, gave them a 9-7 lead, and they added eight points without reply, sweeping to 17-7 and the brink of triumph. Xala was the main instigator of this run of points, drawing gasps from the crowd with the pace and precision of many of his winners, whether cross court or into the corner. However, the real difference here arguably lay with the defenders; as Laskurain grew in stature, continuing his scintillating form from Zarautz, Begino looked increasingly lacklustre and gave Aimar, who only committed his first error with the score at 7-16, little room for manoeuvre. With an attack dulled, and Xala seemingly able to retrieve anything, the game looked to be up.

The momentum of the pelota match can change dramatically with the serve, and the blue pair won it back with a cross court winner from Aimar which, for once, left Xala reeling. He took the next two points in addition, hitting to the corner with total command. It seemed as if the sun had finally begun to shine on the trailing pair when Begino finally found some magic and struck the rebote, much to Laskurain’s visible chagrin. 11-17 seemed a little healthier; another few points and the opening was there. However, the advantage was lost once again when Aimar rushed into a txoko and hit it low. His fury with himself was plain to see. Begino let the deficit out further with an inexplicable miscue, but they came back to within five with a deceptively easy swipe into a clear court from Aimar, another rebote from Begino and a rare error from Laskurain. A ball from Xala into Aiimar’s body and a slip from Begino gave the reds match point at 21-14, but still the blues fought, two Aimar winners and two Laskurain errors bringing the score to 21-18. However, the dream comeback was ended with a typically clinical airez from Xala.

Xala and Laskurain were the better pairing for the majority of the match, and made hay while Begino suffered a lengthy lapse. Xala barely put a foot wrong, hitting 12 winners to 2 errors. Aimar managed 10 winners to 2 errors, signalling a solid evening from the multi txapela winner, but one in which he failed to break through Xala’s excellent defences for sufficiently long periods. Laskurain, until the very end, played a solid and astute game, acting as a near perfect foil for Xala’s venom.

Scoring sequence: 0-1, 1-1, 1-2, 2-2, 2-4, 3-4, 5-4, 5-5, 6-5, 6-6, 8-6, 8-7, 17-7, 17-11, 19-11, 19-14, 21-14, 21-18, 22-18.

Winners/errors: Xala 12/2, Olaizola 10/2, Laskurain 3/4, Begino 2/5

Match time: 1:04.16, with 24:04 playing time

Balls hit: 488

The Manomanista Champion, Xala, is in excellent shape

Saturday 20^th August, San Sebastian

MARTINEZ DE IRUJO – ZUBIETA beat BENGOETXEA VI – BEROIZ 22-21

Irujo and Zubieta will join Xala and Laskurain in the final tonight, having beaten Bengoetxea and Beroiz by the narrowest possible margin on Saturday. The Asegarce pair was ahead for almost the entire tense encounter, though their lead never grew to more than four points. They were tracked closely by Irujo and Zubieta, who showed their nerve at the death, coming from 18-20 and saving a match point to draw level, before seizing the decider for a 22-21 win after 82 minutes and 609 strikes of the ball. The match was partially overshadowed by the consequences of moisture on the fronton, which made a noticeable difference to the stability and confidence of the players from 18-16 onwards. Atano II has suffered and overcome this problem in the past, and investigations will surely commence. Happily though, all four players emerged unscathed.

Scoring sequence: 2-1/ 5-1/ 5-2/ 5/ 7-5/ 7-6/ 8-6/ 8/ 9/ 10-9/ 13-9/ 13-10/ 14-11/ 15/ 17-15/ 17-16/ 18-16/ 18/ 20-18/ 20/ 20-21/ 21/ 21-22

Winners/errors: Bengoetxea 8/6, Irujo 8/4, Beroiz 0/6, Zubieta 1/5

Irujo will face Xala in the final

 Images from soloespolitica.com, Deia

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Friday 5th August, Vitoria-Gasteiz

BENGOETXEA VI – BEGINO beat TITIN III – ZUBIETA 22-12

The opening match of the Virgen Blanca tournament in Vitoria-Gasteiz looked on paper to be a tough one to call. The Aspe pair combined Titin, still as dogged as ever with Aitor Zubieta, well on the way to recovering his considerable best after injury, while Asegarce fielded the oft thrilling Oinatz Bengoetxea, who stormed his way through the summer tournaments last year, with metronomic champion defender Aritz Begino. However, there was in reality little contest, as Bengoetxea dominated the evening, bringing his A game, while everyone else left theirs at home.

The tone of the game was set from the off, as Bengoetxea and Begino seized six points without answer against opponents who seemed immediately off colour. Bengoetxea signalled his intent in the first point, which he won with a beautiful txoko, from a superb angle, which barely bounced. Zubieta put it wide twice, and Titin low once, and those errors, combined with Bengoetxea’s serve and long game, placed the Aspe pair so firmly on the back foot that a time-out had never been more necessary. When Titin and Zubieta re-entered the fray, they secured their first point, by the grace of a falta from Bengoetxea, and their second due to a mishit from Begino, but then business continued as usual. Titin showed, not for the only time in the game, a lack of judgement, taking on the half volley a ball he probably should have waited for, before Zubieta miscued after some involved forward play from both parties. The normally unflappable defender let cry a tirade against himself and the world. 3-8 became 3-11, thanks in most part to the extraordinary pace of Bengoetxea’s play, which made Titin look leaden footed at best.

From 3-11 to 7-11, the Aspe pair put together their best run of the match, offering hope of a comeback. This sequence began with an embarrassed Bengoetxea going in for the kill and blowing it from close, but the next three points were all Titin, who wrong footed his forward rival by going to the corner, before two serves in a row induced bewilderment from Begino. However, he let the opportunity slip in the very next point by rushing into an ill advised volley, which fell short. The serve was recovered with a cross court stinger, but then Bengoetxea re-imposed his brilliance with a txoko, and an attritional point seized with a pitch perfect swipe from left to right. Titin offered another glimmer, replying with a tremendous airez, but his momentum was broken, and the Asegarce pair surged again. The two forwards went at each other hell for leather, but even with his partially recovered confidence, Titin simply could not answer the infernal pace of the man from Leitza. At 9-18, the die was well and truly cast; three errors from the dominant pair kept a trickle of points going for their struggling opponents, but the game was up when an improbable reply from Bengoetxea to a Titin dos paredes provided the meat in the sandwich of two further errors from Zubieta, now resigned and dejected.

There was only ever going to be one winning pair in this match, and within that pair, there was only one man who truly hit the heights. Begino was not at his best, although he outdid Zubieta in the consistency stakes. Bengoetxea showed flashes of serious class, and his mark on the match could have been even greater if he had not on occasion given way to complacency, hurrying to hit winners rather than building points block by block. There was little Titin could do to rescue the initiative, as Bengoetxea made him appear in a class below. If he can hold onto this purple patch, every other forward in the tournament must come up with a plan to subdue him and his boundless spirit.

Scoring sequence: 0-6, 1-6, 2-6, 2-8, 3-8, 3-11, 4-11, 7-11, 7-12, 8-12, 8-14, 9-14, 9-18, 10-18, 12-18, 12-22.

Oinatz Bengoetxea: class

Image from: Noticias de Navarra

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On Sunday, Aitor Zubieta makes his highly welcome return to the fronton after tearing an anterior cruciate ligament in December. In his comeback game, he will be partnered by Xala, with whom he won the Pairs Championship in 2010. We wish him all the best!

Friday 3rd June, Zestoa

22:10 (CEST) APEZETXEA – LADIS GALARZA v GORKA – CECILIO

Followed by RETEGI BI – LASKURAIN v ARITZ LASA – ZABALETA

Sunday 5th June, Eibar

17:00 (CEST) APEZETXEA – LARRINAGA v GORKA – ARRUTI

Followed by XALA – ZUBIETA v RETEGI BI – PASCUAL

To watch, go to http://www.eitb.com/television/etb-sat/en-directo

Zubieta: back in business

Photo from ireneritz.blogspot

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Diario Vasco reports today that Aitor Zubieta is making an excellent recovery. The defender from Etxarri-Aranatz tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee while contesting his Masters semi final in December. He can now bend the knee completely, and is in optimistic mood. He reports that the knee shows no signs of inflammation and that he was able to dispense with both crutches only two weeks after surgery, which took place a month ago. His doctors are ‘astonished’ by the speed of his progress, and much of his rehabilitation is now done at home, rather than the clinic. Zubieta stated that he can ‘lead a normal life’, with the exception of playing pelota, but is rightly cautious about the potential speed of his return to the fronton, stating that ‘it is important not to get tendinitis and to improve everything we can. And the doctors will tell me when I am ready to go’. According to the previous estimate, he will likely resume competition in June or July.

Source: story in Diario Vasco, by Joseba Lezeta, 3/2/11

Image from Deia

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Firstly, apologies; I’ve been in Belgium ever since Christmas with no chance to watch pelota, let alone write about it, and a lot has happened in that time. It’s time to redress the blogging silence!

Masters Kutxa Final, 25th December, Pamplona

BENGOETXEA VI beat MARTINEZ DE IRUJO 22-8

It took Oinatz Bengoetxea less than half an hour to destroy Juan Martinez de Irujo, and land the 12,000 Euro cheque as Masters champion. The Leitzarra subjected Irujo to a taste of his own medicine, dominating with his serve and volleying with aplomb on his way to a 22-8 victory. Irujo started as the hot favourite, and won the first four points, but from 1-5 down there was little stopping his opponent, who added a further nine points without reply.  Irujo fought back to 8-10 but Bengoetxea surged again, playing at a furious pace, and showing the very human side of the Manomanista champion. Diario Vasco

Oinatz on song

Lift of for the 2011 Pairs Championship

The pelota year begins with the Pairs, an epic contest which runs from early January until April 17th. Each empresa enters four combinations, and each pair plays every other pair twice, the top four advancing to the semi finals, which are also played as a round robin. The 2010 champions are Xala and Aitor Zubieta, but owing to his serious knee injury, the latter will miss the chance to defend his title. Xala plays instead with Abel Barriola, in a combination which oozes class. The most surprising pairing is surely that of Irujo and David Merino, the 20 year old first year pro last seen on the receiving end of a thumping at the hands of Idoate in the second tier Cuatro y Medio final. Merino is an exciting talent, but his promotion to the top flight to partner the number one player must surely raise eyebrows. Is it too much too soon for the man from Rioja? Time will tell. His call up means no repeat performance for Mikel Beroiz, who partnered Irujo last year. Another notable pairing is that of Oinatz Bengoetxea and Patxi Ruiz, who lit up the summer festivals in 2010. Ruiz has experienced resurgence in past months and has his chance with a partner who could accompany him deep into the spring. Aimar Olaizola, who won the 2009 title, is back for more, but his then partner Oier Mendizabal is left out, making way in the elite eight for Alexis Apraiz, who has clearly been groomed for this by Asegarce. The full line-up is as follows:

For Asegarce: Olaizola II – Begino, Bengoetxea VI – Patxi Ruiz, Olaizola I – Beloki, Berasaluze VIII – Apraiz

For Aspe: Xala – Barriola, Martinez de Irujo – Merino II, Gonzalez – Laskurain, Titin III – Pascual

The championship commenced last weekend with the first rotation of matches, and the results were as follows:

• XALA – BARRIOLA beat OLAIZOLA I – BELOKI 22-6
• BENGOETXEA VI – PATXI RUIZ beat MARTINEZ DE IRUJO – MERINO II 22-4
• OLAIZOLA II – BEGINO beat GONZALEZ – LASKURAIN 22-19
• TITIN III – PASCUAL beat BERASALUZE VIII – APRAIZ 22-18

In as far as we can glean anything from the first week of matches, it seems the Irujo – Merino experiment may not be working. The pair was thrashed by the tested combination of Bengoetxea and Ruiz, and by all accounts looked all at sea. They may of course settle, but the omens are not good. Xala and Barriola did all that was expected of them and more, putting Asier Olaizola and Beloki to the sword with clinical efficiency, and confirming their status as likely favourites. The closeness of the other two matches suggests absorbing times ahead. For a full fixture list, see Asegarce’s website. I will post broadcast schedules for this weekend in due course.

Barriola and Xala made a storming start

 Aitor Zubieta goes under the knife

As his colleagues got down to business in the championship he won last year, Aitor Zubieta was preparing for surgery to repair his torn anterior cruciate ligament, acquired in his Masters semi final against Bengoetxea. The operation took place yesterday at the Clínica Ubarmin near Pamplona, and was deemed a success by surgeons. The procedure lasted for a hour and a half, and carries a recovery time of around six months.

Zubieta: the long road back

Images: Bengoetxa, Pilotazale; Barriola/Xala, Gara (Imanol OTEGI/ARGAZKI PRESS); Zubieta, Noticias de Navarra (Inaki Porto)

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