Apologies for the lack of updates in the past week; I’ve been away and rather out of the loop. I reported on Martinez de Irujo and Barriola’s win over Xala and Laskurain on the 23rd December, but the other results from the Christmas weekend were as follows:

TITIN – MERINO II beat ARITZ LASA – ZUBIETA 22-12

OLAIZOLA II – BEROIZ beat ARRETXE II – BEGINO 22-5

BERASALUZE VIII – ALBISU beat BENGOETXEA VI – APRAIZ 22-16

This past weekend, ARRETXE II – BEGINO, having been crushed the previous week, fell again by 22 points to 5 to MARTINEZ DE IRUJO – BARRIOLA. OLAIZOLA II – BEROIZ remain unbeaten, defeating TITIN III – MERINO II 22-15. BENGOETXEA VI – APRAIZ beat ARITZ LASA – ZUBIETA 22-13 and BERASALUZE VIII – ALBISU saw off XALA – LASKURAIN 22-9.

The overall standings can be viewed at Manista.com

The other major news item to come out of the Pairs Championship this week is a hand injury to Aitor Zubieta, who finished his match this weekend in considerable strife. He is a doubt for the next round of matches, but has until 15th January to recover, as this weekend the competition is put on hold for the Torneo Bizkaia de Parejas 5 1/2. This is a format which has never previously been tried. The semi-finals take place this Thursday, and will be between Titin III-Barriola and Martinez de Irujo-Merino II (replacing Zubieta), and Berasaluze VIII-Beroiz and Olaizola II-Patxi Ruiz. The final takes place on Saturday in Bilbao.

In better news for Aitor Zubieta, Aspe today announced that the defender had signed a new contract with the empresa, keeping him on their books until 2019.

Zubieta's new contract may partially ease his injury pain

Photo: mine