Raspall

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Raspall (Catalan for "scraping") is a Valencian pilota modality featuring a singular relevant trait such as the ball is allowed to bounce as many times as desired, this carries a bigger effort for players since they'll be stooping to hit the ball on the ground. Also, this sport may be played on the streets or in a trinquet (the most renowned is El Zurdo of Gandia.

The only Valencian pilota modalities with professional players are Escala i corda and Raspall, which is mainly played in the Valencian regions south to the Xúquer river: the Safor, the Costera, the Marina Alta and the Marina Baixa, but it's also popular in the Ribera Baixa.

Raspall match at Callosa d'En Sarrià

1 Playing areas
2 Ball and clothes
3 Rules
4 Competitions
5 External links

[edit] Playing areas

"Raspall" matches may be played in a trinquet or on a street, with some minor changes on the rules.

The playing area is divided in two halves, called the "serving" and the "receiving" fields, but not signaled by any net or signal on the ground.

The chosen street must be flat and straight, around 75 m long and 8 m wide. It doesn't matter much if there are some irregularities such as balconies, traffic signals, since they may be used as traps for tricky effects on the ball. The ends of the street are called the "fault lines", that is, if the ball bounces on the ground behind them the defending team loses the "quinze". Spectators may seat behind those "fault lines" or on one of the sidewalks.

In the trinquet, they may choose where to seat. The most careful watch the game from the galleries and the bravest and pilota scholars seat at the llotgeta. But the main amount seat at the stairs, since players don't want to throw the ball there, so they feel safe.

[edit] Ball and clothes

Vaqueta ball

In the raspall a kind of ball called pilota de vaqueta (Catalan for little cow ball), it's a small and extremely fast ball, very tough and good bouncer. The name comes from the fact that it's made of cow leather. Size for adults are 42 mm diameter, 138 mm circumference, and 42 gr of weight.

Due to the extreme toughness of this sport, players must wear special protections on the hands: Getting ready the hand.

Players wear in red or blue, being red the colour of the allegedly stronger team or the favourite in the bets. Since they are stooping many times during the match they wear short trousers.

[edit] Rules

Raspall is played in one-on-one matches, but it's mainly a team sport. Teams are formed by 2 or 3 players. Matches between teams of 2 members and teams of 3 members are not unusual at all, in fact when a certain player is regarded to be good he is given a weak partner to play against three average players. This way bettings are most interesting and teams are somehow compensated.

The winner of a "Raspall" match is the team who attains 25 points, which are counted in 5 blocks called jocs. That is, a match is played until 5 "jocs" are got by a team. Every "joc" consists in four quinzes: 15, 30, val and joc. Whoever wins the "val" gets the "joc" and scores 5 points.

Teams play face to face throwing each other the ball with one hit of the hand until one of them is not able to send it back to the opponents ("fault" by the loser and so a quinze for the winner), or the ball is sent to a place where it can't be thrown back (direct quinze). Those special places are the "llotgeta" and the "galleries" (if the match is played in a trinquet or the ball is sent behind the opponent's "line fault" (if it's played on a street).

The "quinze" begins when a player serves by bouncing the ball in the "dau" square (if in a trinquet) or on a marked stone from the "fault line" (on a street). It doesn't matter if the ball bounces on the ground as many times as needed. But, in the case the match is played in a trinquet, if the ball rebounds on the "rest" or "dau" walls it must be thrown back after the very first bounce (if it didn't bounce yet) or when it's on the air (if it already bounced).

If the ball is sent to the spectators on the street's sidewalk (or the trinquet's "escales") the ball is immediately "blocked", that is, it will be placed in the middle of the street/trinquet where it was blocked and a player of the opposing team will hit it from there. This way, it's not convenient that balls get blocked, since players use to be able to throw it up to the "galleries" or far away the "fault line".