WORLD’S FASTEST GAME

Thames Star, Volume LXII, Issue 17438, 24 August 1928, Page 5

WORLD’S FASTEST GAME

OF SPANISH INVENTION. PE LOT A BASQUE. BEWILDERING SPEED SHOWN. When the seventeenth century dawned and Spain’s ambitious military schemes had been abandoned; her sons turned to pursuits o£ peace. Recreation had been given scant consideration.' but. with war out of the way there was time for play. It occurred about the year 1620 that the restless Basques devised a pastime, much like our present-day handball, of bouncing a crude ball with the bare hand against the walls of their village buildings. This was the birth of jai alai (pronounced hi-li).

As skill developed and rivalry grew an open court wag used, with the hand gloved and armed with a fiat bat, the latter instrument <#,diving into the canoe-shaped basket, or cesta, used” to-day. Thames ex-members of the N.Z.E.F. who were in Egypt In 1014 and the early part of 1015. will remember the game well under the name of “Pelota Basque.” It was played in a court ... near the F.sbekieh Gardens in Cairo, and also at ‘-Wonderland,” in Alexandria. It formed the medium of,. many n modest gamble, and was a very popular amusement amongst the . Levantines and Copts. Spaniards and an occasional Arab or “Gyppo” were the usual players, and the the backing, was done both through ‘‘bookies” and - / a sort of cross between fhe pari- 1 mutuel and an antiquated “tote.” . Fortunes could be made and lost iS there, but the usual bet was afyout 5 yi “disasters,” and the odd? varied from 5 to 1 to 3—l on. There was , plenty . . of excitement —and more than a C:’ chance of getting one’s pocket picked. The game as played to-day is staged on a fronton floor, the playing court,, covering an area of 150 feet long, 47 ' j feet wide and 40 feet high. The court is bounded by three walls, with an ■ open side where the spectators view the performances. The floor, side and g; rear walls are concrete, but the front wall consists of seventy-two blocks of granite. Granite is necessary for the front wall, as concrete would chip and crumble from The constant battering of the hard ball.

Foul lines around the top of all three walls, at the sides of the front and rear walls, and at the bottom of the front wall regulate the scoring and make extreme skill in controlling the ball essential. The ball is served similarly to the manner in which it “Is served in handball, except that in jai alai the player catches and throws the ball with the cesta, strapped on the right hand. The ball must be returned to the front wall either after the first bounce “or on the fly. v TDI otrov»a

- —playing the. game when they are six years old, anfi it requires five or six years of devoted study before they are proficient enough to play in public. Throughout Spain municipal frontons stimulate the interest of'youthful players just as interest in tennis and baseball is encouraged by public courts and diamonds in America. Leagues are formed in the large cities where the various classes of players, graded according to ability, compete for amateur trophies.

When a player begins performing professionally, his travels begin. Frontons in Italy, France. Egypt, Cuba, and North and South America beckon to him. He leaves his home, seeking his fortune, with the “buenos” of his home town fans ringing in his ears. In some families there are four or five brothers playing jai alai, one perhaps in Cuba, another in Egypt, two in Italy, and another in Chicago, all adding glory to a proud old family name.

Jai alai has been frequently described as the world’s fastest game, and anyone who has seen the game played in Spain, Havana or in those few frontons in the United States will be apt to agree that it Is at least one of the most thrilling of contests. The terrific speed of the ball calls for unusual dexterity on the part of the playerg as well as a highly perfected technique which only infinite practice and play can keep at top form. The ball travels at a speed considerably greater than that attained by a baseball in play, and' play develops with amazing rapidity. The Spanish" boy who would become a master “pelotario” must devote his youth—virtually hig life —to the game. Training is even more severe than that of an American football player during season.

■ Danger lurks in jai alai far more than the spectator would imagine. The ball, as hard as a golf ball, is made of raw rubber, wound after the fashion of a golf ball, but nearly as large as a baseball. Stretched over the rubber are no left-handed players as “south - the ball resilient and almost as hard as a rock. Should a player be struck on the head, the result might be fatal but the boys are alert and cat-footed and serious accidents are rare. There are left-handed players, as “southpaw” throwing would be too great a menace to opposing players. Naturally, a sport of such “spectator interest” finally found its way to the United States. It is now played in that country in Miami, Florida and in Chicago, and indications are that, it will soon be taken up in other sportloving cities. In Chicago, where__tjie 300,000d01. Rainbo Fronton was built as a shrine to this sport, the game is scarcely six months old, yet it draws capacity houses.