Games and sports

Games have always been very popular in Spain: as a pastime both for the aristocracy and the masses games of chance have always enjoyed great favor, even when they were forbidden. But side by side with this love of risk, a vital element in the Spanish character, there are also regional and traditional games.

In the Basque areas, for example, every popular festival is permeated by a frank and rough love for shows of male prowess. Besides the famous pelota, described later, there are other, more violent sports: lifting and putting of weights; woodcutting competitions in the wooded areas. These are proper championships, in which each competitor lays into an enormous trunk with his ax, felling it, and then cutting it into regular shapes. In these competitions strength and quickness of eye, skill, suppleness and speed are of equal importance.

In Aragon they play the barron the barron is an iron bar two feet long, which weighs from fifteen to twenty pounds or more. Competitors must throw it as far as possible, making it fall vertically. Similar games are very common throughout Spain.

Pelota is the game of the Basque provinces, and has extremely ancient origins. Pelota means "ball," from which it has come to mean the game itself, of which there are several varieties. It can be played in the open or indoors in special courts. The main piece of equipment is the chistera, a curved and elongated wicker "basket" about eighteen inches long, with a solid rim of chestnut rods. In the middle is a kind of bag, and at one end the chistera is pointed, while at the other there is a leather glove into which the player puts his hand in order to get a grip.

However, leather gloves, rackets, bats of special shape, and even bare hands may also be used.

The pelota itself is a rubber ball, bound in a layer of woolen thread, and covered with leather; it weighs about four ounces. The pelota players wear shirts, white trousers, light rope shoes and tight sashes round the waist. The ble a chistera, the bestknown variety of the game, is played in or out of doors, on courts of varying size, though on average nineteen yards by 100.

On open courts one side of the rectangle is a wall, or frontis, and there may also be a wall on the other side, a rebote. In closed courts in addition to these walls there is also a wall running lengthwise called the pared de izquierda, lefthand wall,or also ble. The spectators, ranged along the other long side of the court, are protected by a net. On court, there is a bar stretched across three feet off the ground to mark the area of play. To make low shots more detectable, this bar is covered with tin which makes a noise when struck by the ball.

There are normally three players in each of the two teams, one back and two forward. The six players start the game by standing all together facing the same wall. A forward on the side that has won the toss and therefore has the first strike throws he ball hard against the wall. One of his opponents must then hit the ball on the volley or at the first bounce back at the wall, and so on. When a player makes a false return or fails to retrieve the ball at the first bounce, his opponents score one point; a game may go to 45, 55, 60, 70 or 80 points.

SOCCER

The game which has taken bold of Spain more than any other however, the only activity which could jeopardize and perhaps outstrip bullfighting, is' football. The Spaniards are great soccer fans, and the country's teams, both national and club, are highly thought of throughout the world. It is sufficient to state that Real Madrid, which has many aces in its line up, some of them not Spanish, has won the European Cup, a competition for the champion teams from every country, more times than any other team.

PAMPLONA'S BULL RACE

A sport that could be cruel but rarely is, being more in the nature of a test of the boldness and courage of the youth of Spain, is the bull race at Pamplona on the feast day of San Firminio. The bulls are made to run from the square to the arena on the other side of the town, while the daring young men of the district run in front of them. It is a very noisy, picturesque festival, and even if dangerous for the amateur toreros, it is an occasion of great gaiety and joy.