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