Bilbao, July 28: Coached to success
When Santander’s carteles were announced, revealing a mid-week corrida de rejoneo instead of the usual weekend festejo, I thought that Thursday, July 28, would be a non-taurine day. Then BMF, the empresa of nearby Bilbao, launched a competition for novilleros sin picadores - the 1st Memorial Iván Fandiño - with three four-bull ‘clases prácticas’ on Thursday evenings in July leading to a final during Bilbao’s August feria.
Prior to today’s festejo, we inspected the Vista Alegre bullring, re-opened to great fanfare earlier this year after refurbishment. We found very little had changed, perhaps some new tiling on the outer walls, some new lampshades inside, new seating and a couple of electronic screens giving information during the lidia. The exterior walls of the plaza could still do with a good cleaning, and the faded carteles on display in the interior should be replaced. There was no sign of the dome that had featured in the refurbishment project videos. All in all, we were unimpressed.
The novillada, featuring erales from Victoriano del Río, did impress us, however, as did the attendance for this free event.
First up was Rafael Ponce de León, 20, from the bullfight school of Nîmes, who certainly knew his stuff when it came to capework - in a matter of seconds, he’d produced a larga cambiada de rodillas, verónicas, a chicuelina, a tafallera and a media verónica! His faena was a reasonable one, competent, rather too speedy, the bull generally kept at a distance, the remates poor at first but improving as time went on. Any possibility of an ear (the legendary Matías was in the president’s palco) was lost with three pinchazos, a half sword, a further pinchazo and a bajonazo, the youngster hearing an aviso instead.
Sergio Sánchez, 18, from the Badajoz escuela, ended up on his backside in his first attempt at a lance in a quite on Ponce de León’s eral, but quickly recovered from that and was very positive on his own animal. There was a creative start to the capework straight out of an El Pana video, before he dropped to his knees for more lances! The lad’s faena was very good indeed, displaying temple, variety and technique, for instance stepping towards the eral and engaging it closely when it wouldn’t initially take the lure. He killed his opponent with a pinchazo, a perpendicular estocada and a descabello, giving rise to a minority petition. He took a vuelta, and is a name to watch for the future.
Ernesto Lorenzo, 19, from the Almería school, was the least impressive participant. After beginning with feet-together and feet-apart verónicas, he placed his own banderillas. Although the first pair was nicely executed, the rest were scrappy and he got caught at the end running in front of the eral. One banderilla that landed in the animal’s neck caused it to hook during the faena, and Lorenzo couldn’t cope with this, nor the animal’s speed, his passes being frequently enganchados. There was a clean sequence of pases de costadillo, but the closing manoletinas were poor and led to his losing the muleta. The lidia ended with a half-sword and bajonazo to the lungs and silence.
The final participant was the youngest, Goncalo Alves, 17, from the bullfight school of Vilafranca de Xira. He had produced a nice tanda of caleserinas on Lorenzo’s eral, only to lose the capote in the series’ remate. Now, he opened with verónicas and a media verónica and a fine quite of delantales. But, for the first time today, there was a voice from the barrera covering every movement of the youngster - it was Victor Mendes’s, giving constant instructions. Alves placed his own banderillas, too, ramming them into the eral, with two pairs begun from the estribo. These and the stylish passes he gave in the faena were impressive stuff, but how much of this was really him and how much the continuous coaching from Mendes? He killed with an estocada caída, and Matías, for one, was convinced, responding to the crowd’s petitioning with not one, but two, ears. The youngster circled the ring and went out on shoulders, clearly delighted and possibly a bit overwhelmed.
Later that evening, it was announced that Alves would be in the final of the certamen on the morning of August 26, along with two other 17-year-olds - Roberto Martin Jarocho (son of the banderillero of the same name), from the Salamanca school, and Aarón Palacio, from Zaragoza’s Escuela Taurina.