Basque pelota blog in english – Dos paredes

Bilbao’s inaugural summer tournament, the Torneo Aste Nagusia, is taking place this week at Bizkaia. The first semi final was held on Wednesday, and saw a 22-19 victory for TITIN III – MERINO II over OLAIZOLA II – BEROIZ. It was a tough match, lasting well over an hour and involving 810 strikes of the ball, but the closeness of the final scoreline belies the reasonable ease with which the Aspe partnership triumphed. They lost the first point but after that were never headed, despite being held to 4-4 and 9-9. They opened up a gap with the finish line in sight, leading 17-12 and 19-14. Olaizola and Beroiz, still inexperienced as a pairing, pulled themselves back into it at 19-19, but lost the next three points to cede the match. The losers played well in spurts but neither had their best day, while Merino in particular played excellently.

Scoring sequence:  0-1/ 1/ 2/ 3/ 4/ 6-4/ 6-5/ 8-5/ 8-7/ 9-7/ 9/ 10-9/ 11-10/ 11/ 12/ 17-12/ 17-14/ 19-14/ 19/ 22-19

Last night, Titin and Merino II learnt the identity of their final opponents, as BERASALUZE VIII – BEGINO beat MARTINEZ DE IRUJO – LASKURAIN 22-14. The game was intense, but the Asegarce pair won with some confort. They were tracked closely by their opponents in the early part of the match, but from 8-8 onwards Berasaluze opened his shoulders, dominating Irujo on his way to ten winners in the match. Irujo gave him far too many gifts and his adversary had the form to capitalise. The final will be held tomorrow.

Scoring sequence: 3-0/ 3-1/ 4-1/ 4-2/ 5-2/ 5-4/ 7-4/ 7-6/ 8/ 13-8/ 13-11/ 15-11/ 15-12/ 17-12/ 17-13/ 18-14/ 22-14

Source: Aspe, image from reta