Urrugne (1)(2) : Urrugne (Urrunarrak) (Ourquia-Ussaralde -- white) defeated Saint Pierre d'Irube (Hiriburuko Ainhara 2) (Lapergue-Latxague -- red) 13-9
Full match video (Urrunarrak Youtube)
Selections from the match are available at the bottom of this page.
I think the best way to learn a modality is to watch a match closely, and score it point by point. In amateur matches the video can be of excellent quality, but certain things that you would expect watching a sporting event may be missing. An excellent example is a scoreboard. Scoreboards, either photographed at the venue or used as a video aid, are the basic context of every sporting event. In amateur Basque Pelota matches, very often there is no scoreboard. But one of the traditions of BP is the calling out of the score. In some cases the singing out of part of it. In this match, the score is called out very clearly, point by point, in both Basque and French. However, another of the landmarks that help anyone follow a ball and court sport, the serve (who has it and when), and the order of the score, are something that fans simply take for granted as context aids.Without these landmarks as context aids, it is much more difficult to decipher what is going on. I was able to figure out Pasaka scoring by watching the match carefully. But it took a while.
Pasaka is a "direct" BP sport, that is to say, there is no front wall. Players or teams face each other across a net. In most "direct" sports one side serves until the game is over.
In Pasaka there is no serve to start a point. All points are started from one side of the court. The team that starts the point starts it by having one of its players (I have never seen a singles Pasaka match) toss the ball underhand so that it lands on roof of the side Trinquet dugout. The returner returns on the bounce or fly and the point is contested until one team fails to keep the point going. In Pasaka the teams switch sides in the middle of games. The way this worked for this match was that any time a team got to within a point of winning the game (4 points but you must win by 2, exactly as tennis is scored), the teams switch sides and the other team "serves." There is no "deuce" or "advantage." If a team is down 40-30 and scores to equalize, the score changes back to 30-30 (much like the Valentian Pelota sports of Raspall and Escalia e Corda). For long games, like the 20th game of this match, each time "deuce" became "advantage", the teams switched sides. This can become very confusing very quickly and has a tendency to lead to scoring errors, which is why I'm not going to give you complete point by point scoring.
Pasaka matches are basically played to 13 games. This was a very competitive match. Watch and enjoy.
Basic statistics.
Linescore
Key: Game score (winners of the match always listed first); Points of the game score; number of balls in play for the game. I am pretty certain about the first two, not quite as certain about the BIP numbers. But I print them to give you some idea of how long and difficult the games were as the match progressed.
The Urrunarrak team never trailed in this match.
1-0 (4-1--26); 2-0 (6-4--54); 2-1 (1-4--14); 3-1 (4-1--35); 4-1 (4-1--35); 4-2 (2-4--24); 5-2 (4-1--21); 6-2 (4-1--22); 6-3 (0-4--27); 6-4 (1-4--23); 7-4 (4-2--32); 7-5 (1-4--27); 7-6 (2-4--54); 8-6 (4-2--39); 9-6 (4-1--38); 10-6 (4-2--49); 11-6 (4-1--28); 11-7 (2-4--31); 11-8 (0-4--27); 11-9 (8-10--92); 12-9 (4-2--27) 13-9 (4-2--22) Total points score: Urrunarrak 71, SPI 63. For the match: 747 balls in play.
Balls in Play/Games
0-19--1
20-29--11
30-39--6
40-49--1
50-59--2
92--1
Scoring: Note that scoring is completely subjective. My cardinal rule is that a close scoring call will always be a winner (+) rather than an error (-). Calling a close one a winner makes two players happy. Calling it an error makes 2 players angry. I have never played Pasaka. I use my own judgement plus players' body language to help me. One team's winners plus their opponents' errors will always add to that team's final score. In this case the scores were 1 off the final total point score because in Game 18 the judge gave a point to the wrong team. It was a clear mistake that both teams recognized and questioned. It also got the team that was awarded the point to within one point of winning the game, which precipitated a side switch. The mistake stood. I gave no point for the mistake. It looked to me like the team that benefited from the mistake deliberately lost the next point. Such are the vagaries of amateur competitions. You can judge for yourself below.
Note that I am assuming player positions are given back court player first (the only BP modality that lists them in this order) based on the player positions given for the only other Pasaka match I've seen, which is linked to in the main article. My apologies to all players if that is incorrect.
Urrunarrak: Ourquia (back court) +28 -8; Ussaralde (front court and "server") +33 (of which 25 were volleyball style blocks, one of the signature plays in this sport) -2 (71)
Saint Pierre d'Irube: Lapergue (bc) +29 -9; Latxague (fcs)
In this match, Urrunarrak jumped off to a lead that got as big as 6-2 before SPI began their first comeback. Both times they got close (7-6 and 11-9), Urrunarrak pulled away. There were perhaps 2 turning points in this match. The first came in Game 2 when SPI couldn't hold a 40-15 lead. Urrunarrak won 5 of the next 6 points to turn a likely 1-1 match score into 2-0. That game was pulled back by a great block shot by Ussaralde, a large man who doesn't look like an athlete but is an excellent one, in the manner of Mickey Lolich or Bartolo Colon in American baseball. When Ussaralde blocks, he blocks hard. At times I expected the ball to disintegrate. It didn't but such power surely impressed his opponents. For the game he had 5 winners, 4 of which were blocks. It set a tone for the match. The second turning point came after the mammoth 20th game, finally won 10-8 by SPI (their 3rd straight game), cutting their match deficit to 11-9. Another team might have wilted. SPI went ahead in Game 21 15-0. Then came Ussaralde. He made the block of the match to tie the score and then two more to win the game. Two more blocks in Game 22 sent his team into the semi-finals of this competition.
Just for fun, and to illustrate how difficult a point by point accounting for this sport is, here is Game 20, to the best of my ability.
Key: Server (U or SPI); Number of balls in play ("serves" are counted); score (Team ahead); Player: O=Ourquia; U=Ussaralde; Lap=Lapergue; Lat=Latxague +=winner, -=error, +b=winner via block
SPI......4..........0-15(U).........U+b
SPI......7..........15-15(=)........Lap+
SPI.....13.........30-15(S)........Lap+
SPI......1..........40-15(S)........O-
U.........3..........40-30(S).......U+b
U.........3..........30-30(=)........O+
U.........4..........30-40(S)....... O-
SPI......4..........30-30(=)........U+b
SPI......3..........40-30(S)........Lap+
U.........1..........30-30(=)........Lap-
U.........3..........40-30(U).......Lap-
SPI......3..........30-30(=)........Lap+
SPI......5..........40-30(S)..........O-
U........17.........30-30(=)..........O+
U.........3..........40-30(U)........Lat-
SPI......9..........30-30(=).........Lap+
SPI......3..........40-30(S).........Lap+
U.........6...........Jokua(S)........Lap+....SPI wins the game
92 balls in play. SPI won on their 6th game point. U had 2 game points they failed to convert on. Lapergue scored almost 1/4 of his match points in this game. Ussaralde blocks saved the game twice, foreshadowing what was to come.
Selected video.
Game 2 (Note: you will hear the word "artua", which, according to Google Translate means "taken". In Pasaka you cannot hold the ball or try to catch it. The ball must be struck cleanly by the cesta. In this context, "artua" most likely means juggled or held). (2:55--7:55 on the video if the Youtube selection doesn't work on your device).
Game 18 (Judge gives point to incorrect team and following point, where the team that got the benefit purposefully gave the point back) (49:55--51:12)
Game 20 (53:45--63:45)
Game 21--first two points (63:48--64:23)
Games 21 and 22 (63:48--69:00)
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