Monday 16 October 2006
We played a new racquet sport last night with Melissa´s friend Gallo. It is called fronton, but once I looked up fronton on the web, I realized that we were playing a sort of Bolivian adaptation of it. http://fronton.spain.com/ http://www.bolivia.com/noticias/autonoticias/DetalleNoticia28303.asp Here, it is played as doubles with one teammate serving in the front and the other teammate in the back of the court - not so dissimilar from doubles squash. . . Here in Cochabamba there are 3 walls (front, and two sides), but in the images on the web there are only 2 walls (front and left side). The courts are poured concrete and cinderblocks. Here they use racquetball racquets and balls and people here basically play a form of racquetball (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racquetball) and I have no way of knowing if this is proper fronton or not. In fact, on some of the websites for fronton, people seem to be playing handball (without racquets). Regardless, we were dying to get our hands on racquets and to run around - it´s been 2 months since we´ve touched a racquet. . . It was delightful and a good run-around.
So if you know anything about fronton, please leave some comments on the website - we are more than curious!
(these photos are not from the courts we played on... our courts had 3 walls... i think these are the traditional courts which are found in Spain?)
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From Ben Carmichael (18 Oct 2006):
I've found out a little bit about fronton. It seems to be the name of a kind of court, shared by many Spanish games. For instance, the Basque game offrontenis is played on a fronton, as is the more well known Jai Alai. Thegame you played, Fronton, seems to be a form of the Basque game pelota. Aspelota has over 20 variations, and the word ³fronton² is shared across manysport, the word has come to mean many things: the front wall, a house for jai alai, a field of play, and, more specifically, the sport you played. Asa form of pelota, it seems to have its roots in handball. Beyond sport, itseems to be an important cultural icon. As one website says, any Basque townworth its name has a church and, nearby, a fronton for pelota.Interestingly, Pierre Etchebaster, arguably the greatest court tennisplayer, practiced on what is called "the fronton" of a court tennis court....
