Despite the weather’s best attempts to ruin the early-season ferias of Valencia and Castellón de la Plana, most of the planned corridas did take place and provided some interesting pointers to the temporada ahead.

Andrés Roca Rey is determined to defend his status

Now that Roca Rey is managed by Roberto Domínguez and is charging more to appear than when under his previous manager, José Antonio Campuzano, it appears there may be a cooling towards the young Peruvian by Spain’s empresarios. His two San Isidro afternoons, for example - one with Victoriano del Río bulls, the other with fuenteymbros and with Manzanares the only other major name on the carteles - hardly amount to prominent platforms. And (although the weather may have played a part) it is no longer clear that Andrés’ presence guarantees a sell-out, neither Valencia nor Castellón registering ‘no hay billetes’ on the afternoons he appeared. But, at both plazas, Roca Rey came out fighting, his Las Fallas performance (which won him the award for triunfador de la feria) being particularly impressive. The youngster isn’t the most aesthetically-pleasing of toreros - his lidia on his knees and his mid-series pases cambiados por la espalda are not to everyone’s liking, including this writer - but there was no denying the determination, bravery, and risk-taking he was prepared to employ, achieving curving, rather than straight-line, passes to triumph with a Toros de Cortés bull that was later acknowledged as being the best of the feria. Three descabellos reduced his reward on the day to a single oreja. His Castellón performance with a Domingo Hernández sobrero was another display of close passing and a determination to uphold his reputation when his companions had already cut ears. He ended with an effective sworthrust for two ears.

Is this the real ‘cartel del año’?

Great play was made as the temporada began that the all-Sevillian combination of Morante de la Puebla, Juan Ortega and Pablo Aguado was promising to be an oft-repeated cartel this year. But perhaps the status of el cartel del año should go to El Juli, Roca Rey and Tomás Rufo, particularly judging by the sucess of their Castellón showing which saw all three matadors leave the ring on shoulders after a total of nine ears was awarded. Young Rufo (who cut four of those apendices) has had just three corridas in Spain as a matador de toros to date and has been the triunfador in each of them. This time, he was Castellón’s triunfador de la feria too. His decision to compete en quites with Roca Rey was a real marker for the future - at last, Spain has a home-grown talent who can, perhaps, rival the Peruvian for the general public’s enthusiasm.

El Juli has accompanied Rufo at each of his corridas to date and, on each occasion - perhaps spurred on by the young phenomenon’s presence - has performed at his very best. The El Juli, Roca Rey, Rufo combination is on again at Sevilla on May 5, this time with Victoriano del Río bulls. Expect fireworks.

Sevillanos worth watching

And what of that original ‘cartel del año’, which kicked off in Las Fallas? The Juan Pedro Domecq bulls were generally weak and problematic, but Morante de la Puebla showed here, as in Castellón (with similar juanpedros), that he is still in the “I’ll try to get something out of it” mode with whatever comes his way that he demonstrated last year. Indeed, the story of the Valencia corrida, held in horribly windy conditions, was that all three sevillanos had something distinctive to express - Morante with his unique sense of creativity, Ortega’s exquisite capework and Aguado’s relaxed, natural style.

The latter won an ear in Valencia and was more impressive still in Castellón, where he won two orejas, his temple more evident with the best juanpedro of another wet afternoon. The three sevillanos are definitely worth watching, although their choice of ganadería could be improved upon (they’re back together, albeit with the same bulls, at Sevilla on Easter Sunday, and, the day before, at La Linea with cuvillos).

Emilio de Justo, looking to improve

It was strange to see Emilio de Justo on with juanpedros at Castellón, and it proved an unhappy afternoon for the extremeño, with a number of desarmes for a torero unused to the role of nursemaid. This was his second afternoon in the feria, his first being with victorinos in a mano a mano with Miguel Ángel Perera, and he would be disappointed that he came away trophy-less from both. Usually a strong swordsman, on these occasions his efforts with the estoque let him down. The victorinos were an improvement on the disappointing string sent to Valencia, and Emilio would have had a success with the fourth bull of the afternoon if he had killed it cleanly. With his Valencia corrida alongside El Juli and Manzanares rained off, de Justo will be hoping for better weather and doubtless concentrating on practising his swordwork in advance of his important, possibly career-defining, encerrona in Madrid on April 10.

Manzanares doing well on home ground

Apparently, the spectators of Valencia and Castellón enjoy José María Manzanares and regard him as one of their own almost as much as they do in his actual home town of Alicante. It was a surprise to me that they put him on twice in a shortened Las Fallas, but there didn’t seem to be many complaints about this locally, and, in the end, the weather reduced his corridas to one in any case. He excelled with his capework on both his bulls, performed well with the muleta on the one that had enough strength for a faena, but then lost trophies with his swordwork, two attempts at killing recibiendo included. He improved at Castellón, helped by two jandillas that were mesmerised by his muleta, winning three ears after strong faenas and no-nonsense volapies.

Luque making a mark

The other matador to impress in these early-season ferias was Daniel Luque, who had just one commitment with victorinos at Las Fallas (his Castellón corrida being rained off). He, Antonio Ferrera and Román faced a disappointing and difficult array of animals, and it was Luque who most rose to the challenge, demonstrating his capacity for getting something out of virtually nothing and willingness to put his life on the line in doing so. He won an ear from his first bull and was close to winning another with his second. His trajectory will continue upwards if he is able to maintain this attitude on important afternoons throughout the season ahead.

Valencia’s only puerta grande

The only torero to be carried out of Valencia’s main gate during Las Fallas was Jordi Pérez El Niño de las Monjas, who won an ear off each of his El Pilar novillos. His performances (on a very windy afternoon), suitably cheered on by a group of nuns in the stands, were somewhat rough-and-ready, but the valenciano killed well and showed a lot more determination to succeed than did the more experienced Manuel Perera, who struggled with his animals and didn’t look at all ready to take the alternativa that awaits him in Sevilla on May 7.

Well worth buying

Las Fallas lost its traditionally best-attended event - the March 19 corrida - due to the impact of heavy rain on the surface of the arena, while Castellón, experiencing similar weather, managed to get through its feria with its main crowd-drawing events unaffected. This was thanks to preparatory cover by a tarpaulin and the purchase of over 5,000 kilos of silica to spread on the sand to facilitate drainage. Judging by the silica’s effectiveness at Castellón, any bullring empresa facing difficult weather conditions would be well advised to get some silica in stock. In financial terms, Castellón’s La Magdalena must have done reasonably well despite the weather, while Rafael García Garrido is probably ruing his first experience as empresa of Las Fallas.

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