Daily Archives: 22 March, 2012

Promocion Pairs: Semi-Finalists Decided

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The Promocion qualifying rounds finished this past week, one week in advance of those of the top tier competition. OLAZABAL – LARRINAGA top the table thanks to a late surge and a dip in the hitherto excellent form of JAUNARENA – CECILIO who end in second. URRUTIKOETXEA – IZA have secured their place in third, despite only playing ten games as a result of simultaneous injury. The final pair to squeeze into the top for were RICO IV – UNTORIA, who came from behind thanks to the demise of Gorka and Arruti. For this week’s results see here. The final table is as follows:

 

PAREJA

JUG.

GANADOS

PERDIDOS

Tf

Tc

DIF
1º OLAZABAL – LARRINAGA 11 9 2 224 171 53
2º JAUNARENA – CECILIO 11 8 3 225 165 60
3º URRUTIKOETXEA – IZA 10 6 4 193 180 13
4º RICO IV – UNTORIA 11 6 5 212 206 6
5º GORKA – ARRUTI 10 4 6 174 184 -10
6º MENDIZABAL III – L.GALARZA 11 4 7 184 221 -37
7º LEMUNO – ARETXABALETA 11 3 8 176 218 -42
8º TAINTA – ARGOTE 11 3 8 178 221 -43

The first round of semi-finals will take place on Sunday 1st April, in locations to be decided.

Cecilio can look forward to the semis with partner Jaunarena

Cecilio can look forward to the semis with partner Jaunarena

Photo: mine

The Penultimate Week of Pairs Qualifying: Four in the Hunt for Two Places

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The only pair certain of qualification before this past weekend was that of OLAIZOLA II – BEROIZ, but not content with taking their foot off the throttle and coasting through the final two weeks, they dished out another hammering, this time to XALA – LASKURAIN, whom they beat 22-13 in Vitoria-Gasteiz. In doing so, the dealt them a blow as the vanquished pair slip out of the qualification places into sixth, one point in arrears of Olaizola and Beroiz’s empresa colleagues Berasaluze and Albisu. The one negative for the top pair is that Beroiz sits out this coming weekend through injury. He will be replaced by Mendizabal II with whom Olaizola won the tournament in 2008. They play the ailing Lasa and Zubieta on Friday, or whoever may play in their place. Xala and Laskurain face Bengoetxea and Apraiz in their fight for survival.

MARTINEZ DE IRUJO – BARRIOLA look as though they made be overcoming their recent wobbles; a 22-15 win over BENGOETXEA VI – APRAIZ in Urduliz puts them third, level on points with Berasaluze and Albisu behind them. Irujo and Barriola were forced to come from behind against a partnership who realised it was very likely do or die. Bengoetxea dominated in the early stages but his hold disintegrated from 12-6 and Irujo upped the ante and Apraiz began to feel Barriola’s heat. Though they closed gamely to 13-14, the Aspe pair proved to be in possession of an extra gear and their pressure drove their opponents to a raft of costly errors. The defeated pair face an uphill challenge to qualify, but depending on other results, a win over Xala and Laskurain could still be enough.

In the dead rubber in Tolosa, ARRETXE II – BEGINO salvaged some pride from their sorry campaign by beating GONZALEZ* – PASCUAL* 22-8. Gonzalez and Pascual were playing in place of Aritz Lasa and Zubieta who are both injured, and for the second week running were forced to watch their proxies making a mess of things in their name. Gonzalez will have done little here to support his contention that he should have been in the tournament ahead of Lasa in the first place.

The table, ahead of the final week of qualification looks like this:

 

PAREJA

JUG.

GAN.

PERD.

Tf

Tc

COEF

1

OLAIZOLA II – BEROIZ

13

13

0

286

160

+126

2

TITIN III – MERINO II

13

8

5

255

230

+25

3

MTZ de IRUJO – BARRIOLA

13

7

6

249

210

+39

4

BERASALUZE VIII – ALBISU

13

7

6

240

214

+26

5

XALA – LASKURAIN

13

6

7

230

234

-4

6

BENGOETXEA VI – APRAIZ

13

6

7

221

241

-20

7

ARITZ LASA  –  ZUBIETA

13

3

10

182

261

-79

8

ARRETXE II – BEGINO

13

2

11

152

265

-113

The final week’s fixtures are:

URRETXU, 23/03/2012

EIBAR, 25/03/2012

LABRIT, 24/03/2012

TOLOSA, 26/03/2012

OLAIZOLA II
BEROIZ		  
   
ARITZ LASA
ZUBIETA		  
XALA
LASKURAIN		  
   
BENGOETXEA VI
APRAIZ		  
BERASALUZE VIII
ALBISU		  
   
MTZ DE IRUJO
BARRIOLA		  
TITIN III
MERINO II		  
   
ARRETXE II
BEGINO		  

Titin III and Merino II surge into the semi-finals

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Friday 19th March, Logrono

TITIN III – MERINO II beat BERASALUZE VIII – ALBISU 22-14

The stage was set in Logrono for the local boys Titin and Merino to strike out for the semi-finals and they duly obliged, defeating a pair who had hoped to seize such a prize for themselves. Berasaluze and Albisu, despite their disappointing inability to be competitive here, are still right in the hunt but must wait for the final week to try again after crumbling in front of the baying Riojan masses who created a splendid atmosphere at Adarraga.

The game did not start as the home team might have wished, with two errors in a row from Merino. However, any suggestion that he had failed to settle was swiftly shouted down in the third point where he astounded Berasaluze by firing in a txoko winner. From this juncture, the tide began to turn and a raft of mistakes, notably from Albisu, combined with the discipline of Merino and the potency of Titin started to tell. Berasaluze showed glimpses of what he can do with a smattering of impressive points, but it was essentially one way traffic all the way to 15-5. When the game seemed up, something stirred in Berasaluze and he won his pair six points in a row, five from outright winners and one from an error enforced upon Merino. He was a different player in this spell and it was Titin who was forced to fight for scraps. However, any panic on the part of the Riojans was ameliorated when Albisu handed the serve back them by hitting low. Despite an error apiece from the leading pair, Berasaluze was unable to restore his blistering momentum  and five unnecesasary errors on the bounce from the Asegarce duo followed by Titin’s third sakez winner propelled the game’s dominators into the semi-finals. As they embraced with delight in front of a rapturous home crowd, Berasaluze and Albisu were forced to rue a chance missed.

Scoring sequence: 0-2, 1-2, 2-2, 3-2, 3-3, 10-3, 10-4, 12-4, 12-5, 15-5, 15-6, 15-11, 16-11, 16-12, 17-12, 17-14, 22-14.

Winners/errors: Titin 10/0, Berasaluze 10/2, Merino 3/2, Albisu 2/7

Match time: 1:08.09 with 18:25 of actual play

Balls hit: 391

Pablo Berasaluze must try again on Saturday

Pablo Berasaluze must try again on Saturday

 Photo: mine