Word: pelota
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...Cuba and Miami, the game is known as jai alai (pronounced high lie). In the Basque country of France and Spain, where it became a national pastime some five centuries ago when local townfolk used to bat a ball against church walls, it is known as pelota (the ball). By whatever name, it is a lightning-fast combination of handball, tennis and lacrosse, played on a concrete court varying in length from 100 ft. to the size of a football field...
...Sebastian last week, deep in the heart of pelota country, 300 competitors from eight nations (Spain, France, Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, the Philippines, Cuba and Italy) fought it out in the first world pelota championships. But the lineal descendants of the original simple game were so many and so varied that hardly anyone could agree on the size of the court, the resiliency of the ball, whether the game should be played barehanded, with racquets or with cestas (wicker baskets shaped like a pelican's lower bill).*Finally, to almost no one's satisfaction, it was agreed to play...
...American with "muchas pesetas" (exchange rates were favorable)--regional dishes like roast suckling pig, and eggs "al flamenca" with typical sauces and spices were cheap and delicious. Few visitors missed keen Jai-alai games (a Basque invention, Jai-alai and pelota, which resemble squash, are two of the world's swiftest, most exhausting sports). The sparkling wit of the decadent Spanish theater commences evenings at 11 as do most films. The most spectacular events, however, beside peasant flestas, were the colorful bullfights put on in large arenas every Sunday...
...Manolete with the formal pomp which he loved, as a good bullfighter and a good Spaniard must. In Mexico City they remembered that when word of his death came, lightning had been flashing in the darkened sky. At that moment, the crack of balls and shouted bets in the pelota courts had died away, and the voice over the loudspeaker had intoned, "Se murió el mejor" (the best is dead...
...national pastime has boomed at Miami's Biscayne Fronton, where attendance last week was almost double last season's and mutuel betting more than double. One night 3,478 fans watched the Latins strut their stuff and bet a record $66,335 on their favorite pelota-slingers...