An entirely different ballgame

THE regional government’s Director General for Sport, Josep Miquel Moya, recently visited Altea’s remodelled Pelota court at the municipal sports complex.
Pelota is the Valencia ballgame and the long, narrow court, resembling a street where it would originally have been played, was in fact already in use months ago.
Altea’s Sports councillor Pere Barber explained that Moya’s planned visit to see the results of the Generalitat-funded €90,000 facelift had to be delayed owing to the coronavirus State of Alarm.
“The pelota court isn’t being used much at the moment, owing to the health crisis, but there was a great deal of activity before lockdown,” Pere Barber said, as he and Altea’s mayor Jaume Llinares showed the Director General round the installation.
The town hall and the Sports department now hopes to restart the municipal pelota schools, he added:  “At present we don’t have boys’ and girls’ teams, but we hope to give Pelota Valenciana the prominence that it deserves.”