Friday 16th March, Urduliz

22:00 (CET) OLAZABAL – LARRINAGA v LEMUNO – ARETXABALETA Promocion Pairs

Followed by BENGOETXEA VI – APRAIZ v MARTINEZ DE IRUJO – BARRIOLA Pairs Championship

Sunday 18th March, Logrono

17:00 (CET) APEZETXEA – MERINO v IDOATE – LARRINAGA

Followed by TITIN III – MERINO v BERASALUZE VIII – ALBISU Pairs Championship

To watch, go to http://www.eitb.tv, https://www.eitb.eus/es/television/etb-sat/ or https://www.eitb.eus/es/deportes/deporte-en-directo/

The other Pairs matches this weekend are XALA – LASKURAIN v OLAIZOLA II – BEROIZ (Vitoria-Gasteiz, Saturday) and GONZALEZ* – PASCUAL* v ARRETXE II – BEGINO (Tolosa, Monday). The other Promocion matches are GORKA – MERINO* v RICO IV – UNTORIA (Vitoria-Gasteiz, Saturday), JAUNARENA – CECILIO v TAINTA – ARGOTE (Logrono, Sunday) and URRUTIKOETXEA – IZA v MENDIZABAL III – LADIS GALARZA (Tolosa, Monday).

I am afraid I only have time for a brief round-up of this week’s remaining results in the Pairs and Promocion Pairs championships.

In the main Pairs Championship at least, matters went entirely to script, with OLAIZOLA II – BEROIZ taking a staggering twelfth consecutive win in beating BENGOETXEA VI – APRAIZ 22-12 in Pamplona on Saturday. The defeated pair slip to sixth but are level on points with the two directly above them. In Tolosa on Monday, BERASALUZE VIII – ALBISU lived up to their recent positive headlines with a 22-9 crushing of bottom pair ARRETXE II – BEGINO. They are now up to second and on recent performances they deserve their billing as the best of the rest.

Things are also very tight in the Promocion Championship. Top pair JAUNARENA – CECILIO put last week’s defeat behind them to surge to a comprehensive 22-7 win over LEMUNO – ARETXABALETA. The second pair, OLAZABAL – LARRINAGA are level on points with Jaunarena – Cecilio following their 22-19 triumph over URRUTIKOETXEA – OTXANDORENA, the latter replacing the still-injured Iza. MENDIZABAL III – LADIS GALARZA kept alive their hopes of a late revival by beating SARALEGI – UNTORIA* 22-19. GORKA – ARRUTI dealt their growing chances a blow, losing 16-22 to TAINTA – IBAI ZABALA*.

Ibai Zabala, fit again after injury, helped Tainta to a win

Photo: mine