Julio Palau Lozano

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Julio Palau Lozano (Alginet, 1925) was a reputed professional Valencian pilota Escala i corda variant player known as Juliet d'Alginet. He is one of only five players in the Pelayo trinquet's Honor gallery.

His career began when he was only 15. Five years later he was an attraction for every trinquet and even won Quart after a 55-55 draw.

He was Pelayo's main escalater player, compensating for his small size and weak left hand with a perfect placement on the court. Fans said that the vaqueta ball went to him as if he had a magnet, while his corner placements prevented the ball from reaching his opponent players.

On 1952 the organizers of the first Campionat Nacional d'Escala i Corda assigned him a bad mitger as a partner for his team, he disagreed and decided not to take part, so he was banned for 3 months from all trinquets. When this period had ended, he asked the trinquets to pay him a higher than usual fee as a compensation of his forced retirement, and they felt obliged to do so since his name alone attracted much public to the matches.

He retired in 1968.