Remonte--XI Torneo Comunidad Foral de Navarra--from start to finish

This tournament meandered through two months and a good bit of Navarra, mostly in small towns and villages. If you look at the populations listed for the venues (with the exception of one match in Pamplona), you see that the final was held in the smallest venue of all, and most of the matches were played in towns of less than 3,000. To follow the tournament from beginning to end, scroll to the bottom of the page and read up. Enjoy the tour.

Sources for all match scores, articles, and tables: Euskal Jai Berri and Oriamendi2010 unless otherwise specifically stated. I used Oriemendi2010 because it maintained current tables for the A Tournament league phase.

September 25, 2016 at Zubiri (1) (2) (435)

A Tournament final

Endika-Ion defeated Uterga-Etxeberria III 35-25

The experiment with Endika in the front court worked from beginning to end as E-I were undefeated in the tournament with four wins. The match article praises Endika's performance. He is known as a shot maker in the back court and this was transferred to the front court for this tournament. He executed several types of shots that yielded points for his team. Ion played excellent Remonte in the back court. The result was a surprisingly easy victory over last year's champions.

Correction:  The match article noted Endika's great play in the front court in the Navarra Tournament. This indicated my ignorance about Endika's career. In researching the history of the Sagardoaren Txapelketa for the 2017 edition, I discovered that Endika had played in the inaugural final (2011) in the front court. Some research in the Oriamendi2010 database showed that records of Endika's matches (going as far back as April 29, 2010) had him in the front court from April of 2010 until October 3, 2013. So his being in the front court in the Navarra tournament was no "experiment." (Added March 3, 2017).

B Tournament final:

Goikoetxea V-Azpiroz defeated Eburu-Otano 35-32

Match articles for both matches (Euskal Jai Berri)

September 23, 2016 at Fronton Toki Alai, Huarte (Uharte) (6776)

A Tournament semi-final

Uterga-Etxeberria III defeated Ezkurra II-Barrenetxea IV 30-23

Selected linescore (winners always listed first)

19-8; 20-15; 24-18; 30-23

Match article (Euskal Jai Berri)

E-B started tentatively and the vastly experienced U-E took advantage for a big lead. E-B played hard during a 7-1 run that got them back in the game, but they never were able to overcome their poor start.

A Tournament league phase final

Endika-Ion....3-0
Uterga-Etxeberria III....2-1
Ezkurra II-Barrenetxea IV....1-2
Urriza-Aizpuru III....0-3

Note that Endika, a back courter, played this entire tournament in the front court.

In addition to the players listed, Ansa II, Segurola, Zubiri, and Garces played as substitutes.

September 20, 2016 at Villafranca (Alesbes) (1?) (2) (2805)

Ezkurra II-Barrenetxea IV defeated Urriza-Garces (substituting for Aizpuru III) 30-28

Match article and final A tournament league table:

With the victory, E-B earned a place in the semi-final against Uterga-Exteberria III

September 16, 2016 at Labrit Fronton, Pamplona (Iruna) (195,893)

A Tournament:

Endika-Ion defeated Urriza-Aizpuru III 30-26

Match article and A tournament league table

Match article (Noticias de Navarra)

The victory finished a perfect 3-0 league phase for Endika-Ion and gave them a place in the final.

August 16, 2016, at Aoiz (Agoitz) (1) (2) (2601)

B Tournament: 2nd semi-final

Eburu-Otano defeated Barricart-Martirena (substituting for Zaldua) 30-23

Match article (Euskal Jai Berri)

 Eburu-Otano v Goikoetxea V-Azpiroz in the final of the B Tournament

August 11, 2016, at Sumbilla (Sunbilla) (1) (2) (3) (648)

A Tournament:

Uterga-Etxeberria III defeated Urriza-Zubiri (substituting for Aizpuru II) 30-25

Match article and tournament league table

Due to injuries, Urriza played each match in this tournament with a different partner.

August 7, 2016, at Doneztebe (Santesteban) (1) (2) (1658)

 A Tournament:

Uterga-Etxeberria III defeated Ansa II (substituting for Ezkurra II)-Barrenetxea IV 30-29

Match article and tournament league table

August 5, 2016, at Lekumberri (Lekunberri) (1) (2) (1386)

A Tournament:

Segurola (substituting for Endika)-Ion defeated Uterga-Etxeberria III 30-27

B Tournament: 1st semi-final

Goikoetxea V-Azpiroz defeated Rodriguez (substituting for Benat)-Labaka (substituting for Martirena) 30-10

Match articles for both matches and A tournament league table

B Tournament:

Goikoetxea V-Asproz
Eburu-Otano
Barricart-Zaldua
Benat-Martirena

In addition to the players listed, Rodriguez and Labaka played as substitutes.

July 23, 2016, at Irurzun (Irurtzun) (1) (2) (2194)

Endika-Ion defeated Ansa II (substituting for Ezkurra II)-Barrenetxea IV 30-17

Match article and A Tournament league table

A Tournament league phase

Endika-Ion
Uterga-Etxeberria III
Ezkurra II-Barrenetxea IV
Urriza-Aizpuru III


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Remonte--Uterga's masterpiece in the game after.

June 10, 2016

Uterga-Ion defeated Ezkurra-Etxeberria III 40-18.

Full Match Video (match begins at 1 hour, 20 minutes, 15 seconds on the video).

Full match video (EITB via Oriamendi 2010)

Full Match Video (EITB)

On Thursdays and Saturdays there are four Remonte matches at the Galaretta Fronton in Hernani. The second match is the "Star match," when the highest quality players on the Oriamendi 2010 roster face off against each other. The third match is also a high quality match. Whenever the "Star Match" is a tournament final, all three other matches that day become afterthoughts. This day was no different, which was unfortunate, because Uterga played a masterpiece.

Uterga has now won two in a row.  The first was last week's star match where he and Exteberria III came back from 32-38 to win 40-38, and now this great match. Before that, going back to July 1, for matches we have results for from the Oriamendi 2010 Match database, he was 2-8, including losses in the Kutxa Bank Tournament to Barrenetxea IV and Urriza, as well as two losses in the San Fermin tournament, one to Urriza. When Ezkurra returned from injury, his first match was a victory v Uterga. The last two months have been difficult ones. In the grind of a fixture list as demanding as the Remonte fixture list is, players are bound to have ups and downs. Sometimes a mechanical flaw creeps into one's game. Sometimes a nagging injury can be the cause. Any number of things can cause a slump. For a player of Uterga's caliber, this was a long slump. But the last two victories have been great ones, the first one with back firmly bolted to the wall, the second an absolute clinic in shot making that reminded us all of what an artist with the cesta he is.

He and Ion crushed Ezkurra-Exteberria III. Uterga really hit his stride in the second half of the match, turning a still competitive 20-13 lead into a 40-18 route. In the ten points when U-I really put the match out of reach (26-14--35-15), he scored 8 of the points. He scored on 4 two-wall shots, 2 dejadas, a high and deep passing shot on one of the longest points of the match (20 balls in play) and a left wall shot. These 10 points take place from 1:55:33 to 2:03:53 of the video. It is an absolute master class in Remonte offense, well worth the 8 minutes.

Oh and by the way, you might also want to check out the point that began at 36-17 and ended at 37-17 (2:06:32--2:06:41). Uterga wins that point with a two wall shot from the 7 line, with his shoulder almost against the left wall. For the match he had, by my count, 14 two wall winners. It's a beautiful thing to see Uterga at his best.

Back to the update.

Jai Alai/Cesta Punta--Analysis of Aritz' great week

Complete weekly statistics of wins and losses (wins defined as 1st (win), 2nd (place), or 3rd (show) in quinella score matches, losses defined as every game not "in the money") are accounted for, by week and cumulatively, under the "Jai Alai, Miami weekly leaders" page on the right side of main updates blog.

If you look at the Miami Player Pages for each Monday, you will see a precise accounting of how each player did for the week. A week's performances (the entire schedule of games in one day is called a performance in Quinella based pari-mutual Jai Alai) are quickly summarized by subtracting the figures for the beginning of the previous week from the figures from the beginning of the present week. You can do that yourself or you can check Tiger's Jai Alai Chalk Talk Discussion Forum, which has been active since 2003 and discusses all things Jai Alai (mostly in English). The discussion forum is supported by the Jai Alai Heaven website, which contains a very large and well organized collection of Jai Alai related information. The most important part of JAH from an information standpoint, is the One Stop Info page, which links to all the statistics you'll ever need regarding professional Quinella Jai Alai in the U.S. Tiger takes that info and distills it into a set of weekly data that is tremendously useful for whatever purpose you choose. That is the weekly data that he has so kindly given me permission to copy into my Miami (and soon also into another page for Dania) recurring results page.

One Stop Info, from a librarian's point of view, is about as perfectly organized a web page as you will find anywhere on any topic. In a very small amount of space, Tiger has linked to a very large array of statistics. It is completely intuitive, and for those who wish to follow this type of Jai Alai on a day to day basis, this is the essential bookmark.

I am going to spend a little time trying to explain Quinella Jai Alai in order to help you understand the magnitude of the week that Aritz Erkiaga had between August 31 to September 5, 2016. For those of you who are very familiar with the game, simply scroll down from here to where Aritz' day to day data is (Aritz Erkiaga, like all other players...).

Quinella Jai Alai is a very different discipline from the partido Jai Alai we have been following. It is set up like a horse race, because its main context and purpose is pari-mutual wagering. Each game consists of 8 (singles) or 16 (doubles) players, in other words, eight teams. Team 1 plays one point against Team 2. The winner keeps playing. The loser goes back to the bench and waits for its turn in the rotation to come up again. Games are played to 7 or 9 points. In the first round, each point is worth 1 point. In every subsequent round each point is worth 2 points. This means that a 7 point match can be won with anywhere from 4 to 7 actual points, a  9 point match with anywhere from 5 to 8. There are various types of wagers, the most popular being the trifecta (pick winner, place and show).

In this form of the sport mistakes are harshly punished. A mistake causes your team to be thrown out of the game for, I believe, the next 6 actual points. Games cannot be won from the bench. What this means to the players is that there is no time to get into a rhythm.

At Miami there are 12 games in each performance. Games 1-6 are usually played by the "B" players, games 7-12 usually by the "A" players. Games 1-6 consist of two singles matches, one 9 point match and three 7 point matches. Games 7-12 are a little different in that there are two 9 point matches instead of one. The key word about this set up is "usually." For various reasons, early game players play in late games, and vice versa. The two key variables, variables which change from game to game are "post position" (1-8) and partnerships in the doubles matches. In general, high number post positions such as 6-8 are more difficult to win from.  First because a later post position takes longer to get in the game. Second because the number of opportunities to get back into the game after losing a point diminishes as the game progresses.

The uniforms of players are color coded and have two numbers, post position on the front and personal on the back. For anyone who has never watched Quinella Jai Alai, it can be quite confusing at first. The reason for all the confusion is to make the wagering interesting and entertaining. This also makes it more difficult for players to win matches. There is no consistency of anything from match to match.

Quinella Jai Alai at Miami is very demanding. It is played 6 days a week (Tuesday's are off days). Each game is completely different. It is one of the most mentally taxing sports imaginable. Grinding out game after game, day after day, in post position after post position, with partner after partner is extremely difficult. And of course this doesn't begin to deal with the physical demands of the sport.

Aritz Erkiaga, like all other players, usually has a base workload of 5 games a performance. He plays, for the most part, in the late games. For various reasons, his workload for the 6 days we will look at was 39 games, the second highest workload for the week of anyone on the 36 player Miami roster.

Of those 39 games, Aritz (his playing name) won 16. Four players tied for second for the week with 7 wins. Aritz more than doubled the wins of his nearest competitor for the week. If you look at the figures for the week ending August 29 (a "short week" because the Fronton was closed  for two days by the threat of dangerous weather) and August 22, which is when I began the Miami page), or if you look at earlier weekly figures that are available at the discussion forum listed above, you will see what a normal spread between the leading winner and the second place winner usually is. Only then can Aritz' week be truly appreciated.

Another way to appreciate this achievement is to look at it a little more closely. I compiled each game Aritz played, day by day. This was more difficult than it might seem, because there were days when he substituted for another player. Tiger provides a list of these substitutions, making such a compilation possible. The substitution list is not guaranteed to be completely accurate, as Tiger explains, but it is the only list we have. Miami Jai Alai, inexplicably, does not provide an official list.  So with the knowledge that this might not be the exact, true picture, lets take a look at Aritz' week.

Key:

Game Number (G1,2,...); Post Number (P1, P2...); Finish (F1 (win),2 (place),3(show) or X--out of the money); type of game (7D=7 point doubles, 9D=9 point doubles, 7S=7 point singles); Partner. Aritz plays the front court.


*=Substitute

Wednesday, August 31:

G2,,,,P7....FX....7D....Santiso
G3....P2....F3.....7D....Cisneros
G4....P1....F1.....9D....Alejandro
G7....P3....F1.....7D....Arriza
G8....P7....F2.....9D....Ricky
G10..P6....F3.....9D....Ladutxe
G11..P5....FX....7D....Aldazabal
G12..P2....F2.....7S

8 games, P1, P2(2), P3, P5, P6, P7(2)
2 wins, 2 place, 2 show, 2 out of the money
Won from P1 and P3
Won with Alexandro and Arriza

Thursday, September 1, 2016

G7....P6....F1....D7....Ladutxe
G8....P5....FX...D9....Cisneros
G10..P1....F1....D9....Irastorza
G11..P2....F1....D7....Ricky
G12..P6....FX...S7

5 games, P1, P2, P5, P6(2)
3 wins, 2 out of the money
Won from P1, P2, P6
Won with Ladutxe, Irastorza, and Ricky

Friday, September 2, 2016

G4*...P8....F1....D9....Sierra II
G6*...P3....FX...D7....Spinner
G7.....P8....FX...D7....Manuel
G8.....P8....F3....D9....Ricky
G10...P3....F1....D9....Ladutxe
G11...P1....F1....D7....Duke
G12...P6....F1....S7

7 Games, P1, P3(2), P6, P8(3)
4 wins, 1 show, 2 out of the money
Won from P1, P3, P6, P8
Won with Sierra II, Ladutxe, Duke

Saturday, September 3, 2016

G7....P8....FX....D7....Ricky
G8....P7....F3.....D9....Duke
G10..P8....FX....D9....Manuel
G11..P1....F1.....D7....Cisneros
G12..P3....F1.....S7

5 games, P1, P3, P7, P8(2)
2 wins, 1 show, 2 out of the money
Won P1, P3
Won with Cisneros

Sunday, September 4, 2016

G7....P1....F1....D7....Manuel
G8....P1....F2....D9....Cisneros
G10..P8....FX...D9....Duke
G11..P4....F2....D7....Irastorza
G12..P2....F1....S7

5 games, P1(2), P2, P4, P8
2 wins, 2 place, 1 out of the money
Won from P1, P2
Won with Manuel

September 5, 2016

G2....P4....FX....D7....Aizpitarte
G3....P6....FX....D7....Ladutxe
G4....P8....F2.....D9....Arriza
G5....P1....F1.....S7
G6....P1....FX....D7.....Irastorza
G7*..P6....FX....D7.....Guisasola
G8*..P7....F3.....D9.....Garro
G10..P2....F1.....D9.....Guisasola
G11..P7....F1.....D7.....Duke

9 games, P1(2), P2, P4, P6(2), P7(2), P8
3 wins, 1 place, 1 show, 4 out of the money
Won from P1, P2,  P7
Won with Gusasola, Duke

39 games, 16 wins .(410 winning percentage), 5, place, 5 show,  26 in the money (.667 in the money percentage).

Won 4 singles out of  6
Place 1 singles out of 6
Out of the money 1 singles out of 6

Won 12 doubles out of 33
Placed 4 doubles out of 33
Show 5 doubles out of 33
Out of the money 12 doubles out of 33

Won from Post 1: 6 of 8
Won from Post 2: 3 of 5
Won from Post 3: 3 of 4
Won from Post 4: 0 of 2
Won from Post 5: 0 of 2
Won from Post 6: 2 of 6
Won from Post 7: 1 of 5
Won from Post 8: 1 of 7

Won with Alexandro, Arriza, Cisneros,  Duke (2), Guisasola, Irastorza,  Ladutxe (2), Manuel, Ricky, Sierra II

Aritz took care of business when he had good opportunities. Out of the 1-3 post positions (17 opportunities), where a high percentage (.394 through Sep. 5) of matches are won, he won 75 percent. From the 6-8 positions (18 opportunities) where a much lower percentage (.262) of matches are won, his percentage was .222. He also made the most of his opportunities when he didn't have to worry about who his partner was. He wasn't particularly effective in early games (3 wins, 4 in the money out of 10). He won with 10 different partners. Finally, in the very latest games (10-12), games where it sometimes takes a great deal of energy just to keep going (see especially Sep. 5), but also the marquee games of the day, he won 10 times in 17 tries, a .588 winning percentage. In these games he was in the money 13 times, a .765 winning percentage. He must have been very tired at the end of the Sep. 5 performance. It was quite a week.

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