My first Xare Match

Urrunarrak is one of the clubs that plays in the Ligue de Pelote du Pays Basque  Championnat du Pays Basque 2017 - Xare - 1ère série. By itself, this is not particularly noteworthy. The league has 8 other teams that are vying for a championship. However, what does make Urrunarrak unique at the moment, is that the club produces videos of its home matches. I had never seen a Xare match before I discovered their Youtube site. My first Xare match was Urrunarak v Hardoytarrak, played on October 2, 2016. Details of the competition and the match can be found at the link above. Details about what Xare is and how it is played are available in English here. Or here, en Francais. The key to the game is the implement, the xare.

Because the meshwork of the racquet is so loose, putting the pelote in play is a combination of hitting and catching/throwing, somewhat, but not exactly analogous to the way the joko garbi cesta is used. And because the sport is played on a trinquet court, a short (28 meter) court with some of the ornamentations that are central to Main Nue, the pelote moves very quickly and unpredictably. The sport emphasizes quickness and finesse.

The pelote doesn't move as fast as in Jai Alai, but the game progresses tremendously fast. Even long points go very quickly. That was the first thing I noticed about the sport. 40 point matches rarely take an hour to play. The one I watched had 65 points and was played in less than 42 minutes by premier club teams. The longest point I saw took 43 seconds. It consumed 16 balls in play. I'm not exactly sure which point it was because of the difficulty keeping score. It was near the end of the match.

October 2, 2016

Urrugne Fronton (1) (2)

Hardoytarrak (Anglet) (Driolet-Sistiague) defeated Urrunarrak (Urrugne) (Urchueguia-Moncada) 40-25. Hardoytarrak is in green shirts. Urrunarrak is in red shirts.

Pelotelive.free.fr match page.

Full match video  Note that there is no scoreboard. The match scores are called out but you have to listen very closely. I never did get the linescore to a point where I could release it to you with confidence. Perhaps you will.

These two teams also played each other in the semi-finals of the 2014-15 Championnat de France on February 5, 2015. There is full match video for it as well (without sound). The video is from a different angle and a scoreboard is clearly visible, making it very useful in learning the sport. It can be found at pelotelive.free.fr here (Hardoytarrak is in white--match begins at 4 minutes 22 seconds on the video). Make sure to DESACTIVER PFF'S auto-refresh feature below the video or it will not play properly.

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Bote Luzea--Primer Titulo de Euskal Herria--How they got there: the entire the tournament (scores, match articles, match videos and photos) from beginning to end

In this tournament matches were played to 11 games or 70 minutes, whichever came first. Each game is won by the team scoring 4 points. In this tournament the 6 teams were split into "A" and "B" groups, with a round robin in each group. At the end of the round robin, the first place team played each second place team in the other group in semfinals. Those winners met in a final. Read this article from bottom to top to replay the tournament in chronological order.

Source for all match articles: EEPF. Source for all video: Bote Luzea Facebook page.

September 25, 2016

Final

Plaza de Leitza (1) (2): Lapurdi 1 (Bessonart, Valencia, Urkia, Fagoaga, Etcheberry, Otegi, and Tikoipe) defeated Gipuzkoa 2 (Jon Urbieta, Jauregi, Esnal, Ibai Urbieta, and  Andoni Urbieta) 6-3 (70 minutes). Note: Gipuzkoa 2's Inaki Esnal and Jon Urbieta played and won the Oriatsun V Txapelketa Pasaka final (covered in this blog) in August.

Match article

Selected match video 1

Selected  match video 2

Photos Part 1

Photos Part 2

Advertisement of Final

September 19, 2016

Semi-Final 2

Lapurdi 1 (Bessonart, Valencia, Urkia, Fagoaga, Etcheberry, Otegi y Tikoipe) defeated Lapurdi 2 5-3 (70 minutes).

Match article:

September 18, 2016:

Semi-final 1

Zubieta Plaza (1) (2): Gipuzkoa 2 (Jon Urbieta, Jauregi, Esnal, Ibai Urbieta and Andoni Urbieta) ,defeated Gipuzkoa 1 (Andoni Zabala, Ekaitz Lasa, Julen Chiapuso, Beñat Arzelus, Josu Leonet, Aritz Leonet and Joseba Azpiroz  7-4 (70 minutes)

Match article:

Selected match video 1

Selected match video 2

Photos

The winners of each of the below listed matches faced the loser of the other match in the semi-finals.

League phase Group B

September 11, 2016

Amasa Villabona (1) (2):  Lapurdi 1 (Bessonart, Valencia, Urkia, Fagoaga, Etcheberry, Otegi and Tikoipe) defeated Gipuzkoa 2 (Jon Urbieta, Jauregi, Esnal, Ibai Urbieta and Andoni Urbieta) 7-3 (70 minutes)

Match article

Selected match video

Photos

League phase Group A

September 10, 2016

Sara: Gipuzkoa 1 (Andoni Zabala, Ekaitz Lasa, Julen Chiapuso, Beñat Arzelus, Josu Leonet, Aritz Leonet and Joseba Azpiroz) defeated Lapurdi 2 8-3 (70 minutes)

Match article

Selected match video 1

Selected match video 2

Photos

For the league matches of Sep. 2-3 see EEPF Results pages. I think the matches listed here on September 1 actually happened on August 26 (source: tracking back the Bote Luzea  Facebook page and matching up the EEPF match articles).

Group A

Sep. 2, 2016:

Lapurdi 2 defeated Behe Nafarroa 10-6 (70 minutes)

Match article

Group B

September 3, 2016:

 Gipuzkoa 2 (Jon Urbieta, Jauregi, Esnal, Ibai Urbieta y Andoni Urbieta) defeated Lapurdi 3 10-3 (70 minutes)

Match article

August 26, 2016

Beheko Plaza, Oriatsun: (1) (2) Gipuzkoa 1  (Andoni Zabala, Ekaitz Lasa, Julen Chiapuso, Beñat Arzelus, Josu Leonet, Aritz Leonet and Joseba Azpiroz defeated Behe Nafarroa 9-1 (70 minutes)

Match article

Selected match video

Photos

Senpere : Lapurdi 1 defeated Lapurdi 3  9-4 (70 minutes)

Match article

Selected match video

Photos

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Announcement of tournament

Further news:

Rules of the tournament:

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