The start of the Couples Championship has brought about an unusual situation in recent editions. None of the starters has caused a drop in the … first four days of the competition. If it is already unusual that it happened in Primera, it is even more strange that it happens in Serie B, prone to substitutions if we review the statistics from previous years.
The starters have played the sixteen games corresponding to the first four weekends. We will have to wait a few days to see what happens in the fifth.
To assess the scope of this circumstance, a historical review is enough. You have to dig through the encounter lists to find the last time the same thing happened. It was in 2012, fourteen editions ago. So six days were left clean of substitutions from the start. We had to wait until the seventh, the last of the first round, for the companies to resort to substitutes to solve contingencies derived from injuries. Iñigo Pascual came in to replace Aitor Zubieta and Miguel Merino replaced his brother David.
Since then, substitutions had been present in the first month of the First Couples Championship to a greater or lesser extent. They have oscillated between the only one necessary in 2022 – Peio Etxeberria covered the loss of Altuna III on the fourth day – or in 2013 at eight in 2017, an edition marked by this situation.
The Couples Championships prior to the present had not been spared from relays either. Last year there were three starring the same pelota player, Iker Larrazabal, requested to replace Iñaki Artola in two and Jon Ander Peña in the third. Twelve months earlier, Olabezar was the manista designated by Baiko to replace Unai Laso, while in the ranks of Aspe Danel Elezkano filled Jokin Altuna’s vacancy for the first three weeks.
It is striking to see the number of casualties multiplied in the other category, now Series B, previously Promotion and in its day Second. Last year there were eight – the reference is also that of the initial four days –, two ago there were nine, in the 2023 edition there were no less than ten and in 2022 six were needed.
They hold their hands
This time, however, the sixteen pelotaris holders of the silver category – eight per company – have attended all the scheduled appointments. Not even the hands of newcomers like Unai Amiano,
The Serie B matches are being played with balls discarded by the Primera players when choosing material prior to the matches, which leads us to believe that they are demanding lots and suitable for the stars. Perhaps that is also a reason why the matches have so far been less heated and shorter than on previous occasions, although the last weekend has offered clashes of longer duration than the previous ones.
In any case, apart from the hands, the injuries currently affect the protagonists. Scares such as Unai Laso’s knee surgery on Sunday the 7th at the Atano III or the unexpected impact of a ball on Salaverri II’s leg while he was drinking a drink of water in the half-time set on Monday the 8th at the Beotibar have been resolved without major setbacks. Fortunately.
Laso and Albisu will play on New Year’s in Eibar and two days later in Donostia
The Couples Championship enters its busiest period this Friday, Christmas, in which Aspe and Baiko schedule sixteen First Division matches in nineteen days. They have tried to space out their commitments, but the calendar is tighter in some cases. Thus, Laso and Albisu will have only 48 hours of recovery between their New Year’s match, January 1, at the Astelena in Eibar against Zabala-Martija and the one they will face on Saturday, January 3 at the Atano III in Donostia against Artola-Imaz. There are three couples that will play two matches within 72 hours. Zabala and Martija will take to the Astelena field on January 1 and to Deportivo de Bilbao on Sunday the 4th. In the case of Jaka and Iztueta they have matches on Friday the 2nd in Amorebieta and on Monday the 5th, Epiphany Eve, at the Beotibar in Tolosa. The greatest stress for Altuna III and Ezkurdia will come just after Christmas, since they are announced in Astelena on Three Kings Day, January 6, and in Valcarlos on Friday the 9th.
