Pelota and Other Sports
Basque pelota, which is played with a wooden bat or a wicker basket, is a true Basque export which is highly regarded in Europe and America. It is probably the most exportable-and exported-of all Basque sports. The professiona game is not just confined to the Basque Country: it is a crowd-puller in France, Italy, Mexico,
Cuba, the United States, Philippines, Hong Kong, and Argentina.No village or town in the Basque Country is without its municipal pelota court, which is where the local children pick up the basic skills. There are something like 400 courts in the Basque Country as a whole, as well as the cesta punta schools in Durango and Guernica which produce the finest pelotaris(as pelota players are called) in the world, who are then contracted by the professional circuit in Miami and other parts of America.
Sport for the Basques is something of an extension of daily life, as many events are competitions deriving from work done either on the land by farmers and market-gardeners or by fishermen at sea. Many of their sports can in fact be seen as representations of the old Basque way of life.
Today, rural sports are major attractions at local fiestas and fairs held in Basque towns and villages throughout the summer months. There are lots of different kinds of rural sports, but the most
spectacular are perhaps the stone-lifters, who manage on occasion to lift weights of more than 300 kg., log-cutters and the
stone-dragging competitions in which pairs of oxen are put to the test.In summer, most of the coastal towns and villages also hold long-boat rowing regattas which
draw big crowds.
