Basque pelota blog in english – Dos paredes

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:

The final week’s fixtures are: