Llargues

Llargues (Valencian pronunciation: [ˈʎaɾɣes], "long ones") is the oldest Valencian pilota modality. It is played on the streets, where two teams formed by 3, 4 or 5 players throw each other the ball with the hand try to surpass an imaginary line which changes every game.

There are no professional players, but it is very common in the towns and villages of some regions of the Valencian Community, such as the Marina Alta and Baixa, l'Alacantí, l'Alcoià and the Comtat .

The chosen place must be a plain, straight, wide and long street, measuring 70 m at most. If one of the sides is upset the downside will be assigned to the "rest", the same if one of the sides is wider.

Street is limited by two lines: the banca line and the rest line which mark the end of both sides. There is also another line, the fault line which signals the point the ball must surpass when serving, at 40 m from the rest. In case one of the playing teams is clearly stronger they may give some steps, that is, to allow the banca line to be a bit more advanced in order to compensate for the stronger opponent serve.

Spectators may sit on the sidewalks and behind the street end lines.

Llargues are played with a badana ball, which can be played without any protection. Since this sport is practiced on the streets and the bounce is very irregular this kind of ball almost does not bounce. They are cheap, so it does not matter if any ball is lost on the roofs, at another street or in any balcony (which happens often). Also, streets have plenty of irregularities such as borders or traffic signals, and many places with a different rebound (walls and doors, ground or gutter lids), that cause strange effects to the trajectory of the ball; those unexpected directions are somehow minimized by the soft rebound of the badana ball since it is made of moulding materials. Another reason to use this ball is its slowness and softness, so that it is proper for amateur or casual players.

The badana ball is made of rags with sheepskin. Weight: 39 g., diameter: 38 mm.

Two teams formed by 4 or 5 players try to attain a certain score (usually 10 points) by throwing each other a ball with the hand so that the opposing team is not able to send it back. Not so long ago there was another scoring system called "up and down" (a pujar i baixar), where the team who was losing subtracted points to the winner.

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Wikipedia