The Fair of La Blanca will have new faces

Five days after the Liga de Empresa de Pelota a Mano (LEP.M) and the Vitoria City Council signed the general protocol of collaboration so that the Ogueta fronton returns to the front page, the La Blanca Fair was presented yesterday, which will cover three of the seven festivals scheduled throughout the year. And it will do so with two new faces like Laso and Peña II, who will play the Alava tournament for the first time. The manomanista champion, one of the most demanded pelotaris for the summer season, will be accompanied by Imaz, while the one from Tolosa will have Albisu as his partner.

Both combinations will be measured on the first day of a competition that will have a three-day format and recovers the clashes between the couples of the same company in the semifinals to give more morbidity to the summit clash. Baiko will land in the Alava capital with two solid proposals. The one from Bizkarreta-Gerendian and the one from Oiartzun played in the last couples final, so they know each other perfectly. «A very nice tournament is expected. Until now I had never had the opportunity to play it and I am very excited because it is one of the emblematic games of this time of year”, Laso highlighted.

Imaz was proclaimed champion of the 2019 event, the last one to be played before the pandemic, together with the already retired Bengoetxea VI.

Both combinations were the ones that faced each other in the last match that the Ogueta fronton hosted last February in the Couples play-off with victory for those who wore red, so there will be the possibility of revenge.

“A lot of hope”

And it will be possible because the promoter from Bilbao has given the striker from Tolosa the opportunity to play in the first of the big competitions of the summer season. The Gipuzkoan has achieved the regularity that he was looking for in important events, and the closest example has been his performance in the last Cuatro y Medio in Navarra. “Until now I had played a challenge, so I am very excited that the company has counted on me. It is very difficult to play competitions of this type because the City Councils always want the best and being among them is difficult », he said.

Aspe will land with all its arsenal to try to recover the hegemony that it had during the last five editions until last year. Altuna III and Rezusta will face Ezkurdia and Zabaleta in the second of the semifinals. The Amezketa striker hasn’t played this event since 2018. Barring setbacks, by then he will have recovered the rhythm of the game and the confidence that he currently lacks after forgetting the headaches that his hand problems have given him. “It’s still going to take a while, but the best news is that I’m pain-free,” he said. The Gipuzkoan likes Ogueta “a lot” so he will try to give everything. “Let’s see if the fans respond and we offer a good show,” he concluded.