Azpeitia, July 30: It all comes good in the end
Up in the Basque hills between Bilbao and San Sebastián, Azpeitia today held its first corrida as part of the town’s San Ignacio celebrations for three years following the relaxation of coronavirus restrictions. In accordance with long-established tradition, the feria favours the toro bravo - two days of interesting ganaderías largely with toreros modestos and a final day with a ‘commercial’ tone and more well-known participants.
The santacoloma bulls of Ana Romero have featured in many recent Azpeitia ferias and opened this year’s feria, faced by Sergio Serrano, Álvaro Lorenzo and Alejandro Marcos. The 2022 string posed difficulties with which the toreros struggled to cope.
Serrano, who one would have thought was used to facing toros duros and could therefore apply that experience, was never on top of his opening anaromero. He managed to achieve series, but the difficulties he got into at the end of his tandas, when he had a number of narrow escapes, gave the game away. He closed his faena strongly, but then hit trouble with the sword at the end, receiving an aviso and silence.
With his second bull, he took a risk, made an error and paid the price. He opted to meet it with a larga cambiada de rodillas some way away from any escape route; the bull turned quickly and suddenly Serrano was running across the ring toward the nearest burladero, the bull in hot pursuit. It caught him and slammed him against the barrera, inflicting two cornadas in his left leg. Game over.
Alejandro Marcos has been experiencing a temporada de oportunidad since his success in his home feria of Salamanca last year. Unfortunately, however, he has not made the most of these opportunities, and today was no exception. With his first bull, he managed some decent derechazos, but little on the left hand, and needed four attempts with the estoque. His other anaromero was the worst of the string, not at all keen to come forward in the faena. Marcos met it with strong verónicas, a media verónica and a revolera, only to then find himself in a position where he had to drop the capote and run to safety! He succeeded in bringing off the occasional decent series or individual pass with the muleta despite the quality of his opponent, then experienced more trouble with the sword. His efforts ended to an ovation and saludos, another opportunity behind him, the further success he needs still elusive.
Serrano’s cogida meant that Álvaro Lorenzo had to face three bulls, the second, fourth and sixth. The toledano was lucky to survive his own first wide-horned bull after being caught whilst killing. The faena had been a boring one, Lorenzo pegging passes on the right hand and not coping with a hooking and fast-turning animal on the left. With the bull he inherited from Serrano, Álvaro mainly confined himself to single passes, although at the end, with the animal en tablas, he did manage series of derechazos. A pinchazo, a crosswise estocada and eight attempts to descabellar left him with one remaining bull.
‘Bárbaro’, somewhat confusingly following on from the fifth bull called ‘Bárbero’, was the most impressive and beautiful-looking of all today’s anaromeros. It was keen to the horse, pushing determinedly in the peto (see above) in two varas; charged well and with nobleza in the second tercio (Curro Javier taking saludos for his banderillas) and in the faena; and received a deserved vuelta en arrastre at the end. Álvaro Lorenzo, who is having a good temporada with successes in Sevilla and Madrid, rose to the occasion, citing ‘Bárbaro’ from a distance and passing the bull cleanly, albeit somewhat rapidly, on the right hand before finding things more difficult on the left. He closed with a series of manoletinas, then killed strongly. I thought the performance worthy of an ear, so was rather surprised when the president responded to the crowd’s petitioning by immediately showing two white handkerchiefs alongside the blue one.
