The team of Bueno-Bradley won the Exhibition Doubles Duel at Magic City Jai-alai Saturday night, July 25, and both Bueno and Bradley each pocketed a cool $1,000 for their outstanding effort. The competition started at 8-pm and was among 5-doubles teams, consisting of 3-different rounds of competition.
Round 1 was single points round-robin style play with the purpose of knocking out one of the five teams. The first team to reach 7-points was the #1 seed team, the second team to 7-points became #2 seed team, third team was #3 seed, fourth team was #4 seed. Once a team reached 7-points they dropped out of the round-robin play. The team that didn’t reach 7-points was eliminated from the Doubles Duel. Here are the round 1 post numbers and teams for each, listed by frontcourt then the backcourt player. Post numbers were randomly drawn.
#1: Kubala-Tennessee, #2: Anderluck-Jeden, #3: Bueno-Bradley, #4: Legend-RonRon, #5: Carballo-Ben
The team of Legend-RonRon were the #1 seed team. Carballo-Ben were the second team to reach 7-points and became the #2 seed team. Anderluck-Jeden became the third team to reach 7-points on their 3rd attempt at 7-points and were the #3 seed team. This left two remaining teams to battle it out to stay in the competition; Bueno-Bradley with 5-points and Kubala-Tennessee with 3-points. Bueno and Bradley prevailed and ended up knocking out Kubala-Tennessee with a score of 7-4 to end round 1 of the competition. Kyle had mentioned to listeners at the 4-pm pre-tournament interview on Thursday that he was trying to break-in a new cesta and expressed concerns about that, reminding fans of the last time at Magic City when he was breaking-in a new cesta and did poorly for the next four performances. Also, Kyle has been more accustomed to playing back-court in his amateur career. Likely, the new cesta and the change to front-court were contributing factors in Kubala-Tennessee early departure from the tourney.
Round 2 consisted of two different single point partidos to 11 points. The #1 seed team played the #4 seed team and then the #2 seed team played the #3 seed team. As usual in partido play, if a player over-serves or under-serves, the point is not lost and a second-chance serving attempt is allowed for the serving team.
The first teams squaring off in Round 2 were Legend-RonRon vs Bueno-Bradley. Bueno-Bradley surprisingly shocked fans with a 4-0 start against Magic City star RonRon who has played professional Jai-alai in the Phillipines and is the most experienced player on the Magic City roster. The big early lead was short-lived and soon the game was 5-4 with Bueno-Bradley still leading, however, RonRon was exhausted from running all over the court so they used their (1) 45-second time-out to try and recoup. When the game was 7-6 with Bueno-Bradley still leading, RonRon tried a long lob shot to the front wall when Bueno was out-of-position, however the lob shot fell short and as Pauly would say, “the pad is bad” and the game was 8-6. Legend-RonRon inched closer making the match 8-7 but then Bueno-Bradley went on a run, scoring the next two points, making the match 10-7 and needing only one more point to seal the win and make it to the finals. RonRon-Legend rallied back with the help of a dropped ball by Bueno and the game was 10-9 and a real thriller for Magic City short-court Jai-alai fans. Bueno-Bradley prevailed with an 11-9 victory when RonRon tipped the ball in the backcourt.
The second 11-point partido in Round 2 was between #2 and #3 seeds Carballo-Ben and Anderluck-Jeden. The early points had both teams relatively close with Carballo-Ben leading 4-3 when Carballo threw a perfect carombola shot, a ball that hits the front and side wall, and then hits the cancha (floor) and bounces off in the direction of the screen. This made the game 5-3 with a 2-point lead for Carballo-Ben. That seemed to give them a boost and the score was soon 7-3, but then Anderluck-Jeden scored the next 2-points in their comeback attempt making the score 7-5, however, it was short lived. Carballo-Ben went on a roll, scoring the next 3-points and were leading 10-5 with victory looking impossible for Anderluck-Jeden. Another point by Anderluck-Jeden closed the gap temporarily to 10-6 but then Carballo-Ben won the next point and sealed the victory with an impressive 11-6 partido win over Anderluck-Jeden.
Round 3 was the final showdown of the Round 2 doubles victors battling it out in a final 15-point partido to see what team wins the $2,000 prize and bragging rights as the Magic City Jai-alai Exhibition Doubles Duel winners. This competition was an amazing display of talent between Bueno-Bradley and Carballo-Ben and had one of the most incredible points of the tournament, maybe even the best of the season perhaps.
Early in the partido, Bueno-Bradley led by as much as 3-points but the score was tied 7-7 at the halfway mark of the contest, then at 8-8. After a rare Bradley miss, Carballo-Ben took a 9-8 lead, then 10-8 and were looking very good, but then Bueno scored on a great 2-wall shot making it 10-9. This is where the contest saw the most incredible point between these two teams and if you missed this, you really need to watch the replay on The Jai-Alai Channel to fully appreciate it, but I can attest Stu uttered the words “Holy Shit” either during or after this long point was won by Carballo-Ben, and very similar words were uttered in my living room and many others as well I’m sure! This reminded me of how Palm Beach Jai-alai used to advertise on TV, “We serve excitement.” The Magic City short-court Jai-alai is a VERY fast Jai-alai game and Magic City Jai-alai ruled for Saturday night entertainment tonight and truly served-up some unbelievable Jai-alai excitement! This made the score 11-9 with Carballo-Ben leading.
After this “Holy Shit” moment, it seemed to light a fire under opponents Bueno-Bradley and they responded with an astonishing 5-consecutive points to steal the thunder away from Carballo-Ben. One of those winning points was when the score was 11-13 and Carballo went for Bueno’s serve and messed-up, making the score 11-14. Carballo-Ben won the next point inching closer with the score at 12-14, but then Bueno threw another winning carom and sealed the victory for his team. Bueno’s determination and exceptional two-wall shots tonight along with Bradley’s near perfect backcourt play with amazing and consistent catches reaching high above like a “super spider-man” pulling those pelotas into his “web-like basket” provided fans with an incredible display of talent tonight for this winning team and a hard-fought victory of 15-12 over very tough competitors Carballo-Ben.
The interactive fan component of the Exhibition Doubles Duel tonight was exciting too, where fans were offered a FREE chance to pick the winning team and guess the exact final score of the 15-point partido. This contest resulted in 2-winners selecting Bueno-Bradley and the correct score of 15-12. Due to the tie, there was a coin-toss to determine who would win the $250 prize which was being awarded to only one contestant. Contestant ALMORZA, likely named after Big Al, the tall and incredibly talented backcourt player Almorza at Tampa Jai-alai, won the coin toss and was the lucky winner of $250. Congratulations ALMORZA, this must have been an exciting night for you as well! This author was at Tampa Jai-alai the night in the 1980’s when Tampa player Big Al turned 40-years old and there was a big birthday bash that night in honor of him.
Get ready for more exciting short-court jai-alai action at Magic City in the coming week when pari-mutuel wagering returns Thursday at noon on July 30! The Jai-5 jackpot is currently at $2,750 and could pay as much as $4,000 to a single winner at the noon performance, plus the Mighty Ocho jackpot is now over $1,000 and growing. The Mighty Ocho, a new wager this season, is a $1.00 Pick 8 Jackpot wager with a $2,000 guarantee to a single winner and works just like the “Jai-ly” popular Jai-5 wager.
Congratulations to Bueno-Bradley with this win and to second place finishers Carballo-Ben for some amazing play and helping to make this such an exciting night for Jai-alai fans who love this challenging and incredible sport!
Photos below are left to right: Winning team Bradley-Bueno (Stu Neiman in middle), Scott Savin – COO, Andrew Blechman getting ready for coin toss (to determine $250 fantasy prize winner)
