No more than an average season

It was a close call as to whether El Juli went into the previous part of my review of the 2021 temporada as a notable participant, but in the end I concluded it was a pretty regular year for the madrileño. He began the late-starting season impressively by cutting an ear at the Las Ventas festival on May 2 and accomplishing a two-ear faena on his second appearance at Vistalegre’s San Isidro feria. After these Madrid successes, he chalked up other notable performances at Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Valladolid (twice), Granada, León, El Espinar, Gijón, Tomelloso, Bayonne andTalavera de la Reina, all with Domecq bulls. His few appearances with other encastes were less successful - he said he knew his afternoon with galaches in Salamanca would be poor before it had even begun - although he did cut four ears from the part-Domecq montalvos at Herrera del Duque and three ears from alcurrucenes at Casas Ibáñez. He cut a further ear at Las Ventas in the season-ending Otoño feria, but generally this was a year in which the 38-year-old failed to display the desire to triumph of yesteryear, played safe with his choice of ganaderías and continued with his tendency of killing bulls by a leap to the side. He finished seventh in the escalafón after 31 corridas.

José María Manzanares had a busier season than El Juli, his 36 corridas giving him fourth place in the escalafón. The alicantino cut single ears on a pretty regular basis (including on each of his appearances in Sevilla’s Feria de San Miguel), but after two-ear faenas at Valladolid, Alicante and León in June; Jerez in July; and El Puerto, El Espinar, Béziers and Linares in August, he only managed similar triumphs at Palencia, Aranda de Duero, Hellín, Vera and Requena before the season’s end. All in all, this was another successful season for the matador, facing domecqs throughout his campaign apart from an afternoon with alcurrucenes in Madrid’s Vistalegre and another with murubes at Motril, but not one that set the world alight.

Miguel Ángel Perera (14th in the escalafón after 22 corridas) had somewhat of a low-key season, which perhaps explained his decision to seek new management at the temporada’s end. The extremeño’s most successful afternoons came at Santander with La Quinta bulls, Huelva (where a bull of Parladé was indultado), Cuenca, Casas Ibáñez, Medina del Campo, Don Benito, Arles and Las Rozas, while he cut important single ears at Vistalegre and Sevilla.

So much for the remaining toreros generally recognised as figuras who attempted full temporadas. Of the next in line, El Fandi had a regular season, ending ninth in the escalafón with 25 corridas to his name. His performances were received with silence at Vistalegre and La Maestranza, but they liked him at Valladolid, where he had two big triumphs in June and September. The bulk of the still-athletic 40-year-old’s 52 ears, however, came from third class plazas.

Finito de Córdoba (celebrating the 30th anniversary of his alternativa) and Curro Díaz both had reasonable temporadas by their own standards. Finito, long in the tooth and far from adept with the estoque, had his usual ups and downs (the latter including three avisos at Nîmes in June and Consuegra in September), but he had a bull of Fuente Ymbro indultado at Cabra, winning symbolic ears and tail; achieved two-ear faenas at Tarazona de la Mancha, Aranjuez, Andújar, Montoro and Córdoba; and generally showed some artistry, even on afternoons that began poorly, such as at Albacete. Sixteen of Curro Díaz’s 17 afternoons were spent in third class plazas (the exception being Segovia, a second class ring). This stylish matador also had a bull of Fuente Ymbro indultado during his final corrida at Cazalla de la Sierra; was awarded another tail at Montoro; and had several two-ear faenas, including at Segovia, Andújar, Calatayud and with a victorino at Priego de Córdoba.

The young French matador Adrien Salenc had an 11-corrida season focused mainly on France’s important plazas. His most prominent successes came at Bayonne (two ears from a pedraza) and Istres (three ears from bulls of Concha y Sierra and Robert Margé). He also had successful afternoons at Chateaurenard and Mimizan (with pedrazas once more). His two appearances in Spain, at Zafra in April and Añover de Tajo in August, both netted a couple of orejas.

David de Miranda also had a respectable temporada. He only appeared nine times, but cut 25 ears, with just three of his 22 bulls (he ended his temporada with a six-bull encerrona at Palos de la Frontera) leaving the arena with both ears intact. He cut nine ears at Palos and also triumphed at Socuéllamos and Antequera and is deserving of a busier season in 2022.

Of those matadors on the ‘toros duros’ circuit, Sánchez Vara, Octavio Chacón, and Alberto Lamelas could feel pleased with their seasons. Indeed, Sánchez Vara averaged over 2 ears per festejo and had particularly successful afternoons at Cifuentes (with Araúz de Robles bulls), El Burgo de Osma (Sánchez Herrero aldeanuevas), Pareja and Sanguësa (Marqués de Quintanar bulls on both occasions), Almonacid de Zorita (Fuenterroble atanasios) and Andorra (Los Maños). Octavio Chacón had a bull of La Palmosilla indultado in his closing corrida at Ubrique and had triumphs at Arenas de San Pedro (with José Escolar bulls), Priego de Córdoba (Victorino Martín), St. Martin de Crau (Miura) and Torres de la Almeda, where he faced the tricky navarrese bulls of José Arriazu. Alberto Lamelas’s most successful afternoon was at Navas de San Juan in August, where he won four ears from domecqs of El Cotillo, but he also cut ears from victorinos, pedrazas, escolares, bulls of Yonnet, an adolfo and a veragua of Aurelio Hernando over the course of the temporada.

Disappointments

Antonio Ferrera finished sixth in the escalafón with 32 corridas to his name, including five in Portugal. Until the beginning of September, his season went reasonably well, with notable triumphs at Istres, Badajoz, Alicante, Olivenza, Lunel, Mont de Marsan (an encerrona with adolfos, delivering four ears), Valencia de Alcántara, Alcalá de Henares and Alcázar de San Juan. In his remaining eight corridas, however, he cut just six ears, one of these from his disastrous seven-bull encerrona during Madrid’s Feria de Otoño. That event, with Antonio beseeching in vain for an eighth bull to be allowed into the plaza, had the trappings of a pantomime. He’d earlier received a bronca in Salamanca and the impression one had at the season’s end was of a torero who had run out of steam and whose toreo had become more and more theatrical. His decision to part company with Simon Casas and take on Cristina Sánchez as his manager is a brave one and one hopes that Antonio can reduce the theatrics, concentrate more on the bulls in front of him and stand still more often in 2022.

Pablo Aguado (10th in the escalafón with 24 corridas) had a disappointing temporada for the second year running, ceding ground to Juan Ortega, similar in style, in the public’s affections. He started well with a two-ear faena at Ubrique, but failed to shine at Vistalegre’s San Isidro, not putting enough effort into a potential success with a bull of Juan Pedro Domecq, and only achieved further two-ear faenas at Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Granada, Arles, El Puerto de Santa María, Baeza, Málaga and Lucena. He came to Sevilla’s extended San Miguel feria in bad need of a triumph, only for a knee injury he’d been carrying all year to worsen in the first of his three planned appearances, causing him to cut his temporada short. Aficionados will be hoping for stronger performances from the sevillano next year.

Most of Alberto López Simón’s corridas were in third class plazas, the exceptions being Vistalegre, Béziers and Las Ventas. The 30-year-old cut three ears from Robert Margé bulls in the French plaza, but his Madrid showings were unsuccessful, particularly with alcurrucenes in his Otoño feria appearance after a determined display at Vistalegre had resulted in two cogidas. He cut four ears and a tail at Fuenlabrada and did reasonably well elsewhere, his triumphant afternoons including Tudela, Navaluenga and Niebla, but that televised showing from Las Ventas revealed a matador out of sorts, a misjudgement on his first bull leading to a huge tossing, the madrileño then merely pegando passes on his second when greater things looked possible.

Paco Ureña ended the season recuperating from a sizable cornada and learning that his managers, the Lozanos, did not wish to continue with him. Such is a matador’s life. He won an ear at Vistalegre in May and, the following month, cut three ears at Istres, but thereafter the triumphs were few and far between, with a single ear at Sevilla in September and two-ear faenas only occurring at Baza in September and Abarán in October (where he also cut a tail). The tail at Abarán followed on from a heavy tossing that injured a knee, but, in this mano a mano with Rafaelillo, things got worse on his subsequent bull, which disarmed him in the opening capework before catching him and throwing him against the barrera, the murciano fracturing a vertebra in the cogida and requiring a lengthy convalescence.

José Garrido’s efforts to make a return to the main feria circuit continue with few signs that he will make that step. Although he had a bull of Domingo Hernández indultado in his final corrida at Alba de Tormes in October, he failed to make much impression at the start of his season at Madrid’s Vistalegre (facing adolfos) and managed just one ear in his only other important corrida at Logroño in September. His best afternoons came at Fuentes de León, Briviesca, Almagro and Calatayud.

Gómez del Pilar may have been hoping for a busier 2021 after the strong impression he’d made in 2020: in the end, he took part in 14 corridas compared to six the previous year and 22 in 2019. His main successes were four and three ears respectively from Martín Lorca bulls in his opening corrida at Los Navamorales and later at Cedillo de Condado, and two ears from an escolar at Vic Fezensac. He won nothing from pedrazas in important appearances at Mont de Marsan and Dax, and was also unsuccessful at Céret, French plazas accounting for almost half his temporada.

Álvaro Lorenzo, Joaquín Galdos and Rafaelillo were probably disappointed with just 10 corridas apiece; the first two were involved in management changes at the end of the temporada in their efforts to gain a stronger foothold in the ferias. Lorenzo was another matador to end his season with an indulto, a garcigrande at Las Rozas, and he began it by winning an ear in Vistalegre’s San Isidro feria. His best afternoons were in his home ring of Toledo and the minor plazas of Navalcarnero, Las Rozas and Villarejo de Salvanés. Joaquín Galdos appeared in higher profile plazas and began well with an indulto of an El Pilar bull at Tobarra and successful afternoons at Segovia, St Vincent de Tyrosse and Socuéllamos, but that was it - a miurada at Aranda de Duero was a non-event and an important afternoon at Nîmes passed the Peruvian by. The veteran Rafaelillo began the season facing a victorino on his return from his serious goring in the chest at Pamplona in 2019. The bulk of his season saw him up against albaserradas or miuras, but his most successful faenas were with other bulls - a cotillo at Navas de San Juan and a juanpedro at Abarán. His career is likely to end soon, his 25th year as a matador de toros being celebrated with an affectionate homenaje at Murcia in November.

In single figures

Juan Leal and Javier Cortés were two other toreros who’d be disappointed with their limited number of showings (nine apiece) at the season’s end. The Frenchman would have been hoping for a far busier time after a near-breakthrough in Spain in 2020. Yet he had just two corridas in Spain - both in September - cutting three ears at Cintruénigo and just one at Albacete in an afternoon of desperate tremendismo. In his home country, he twice went out of Nîmes’s Consuls’ Gate with three ears in his pocket and also triumphed at Bayonne. At the end of the season, he ended his contract with manager Julián Guerra (as did Joaquín Galdos, on the same day!) and put himself in the hands of ex-banderillero Curro Molina and Simon Casas for 2022. Javier Cortés’s most high-profile afternoon came at Linares in August when he won two ears from a bull of Ana Romero, albeit - as is often the case with this matador - at the cost of a serious horn wound in the backside. His other particularly successful afternoons were at Colmenar Viejo later that same month and Nava de la Asunción in September.

Of the remaining escalafón, Enrique Ponce - to the surprise of everyone, including his cuadrilla - decided to call it a day after just seven corridas, his only two-ear faena coming in his final corrida at León in June. Following his comeback corrida at Estepona in 2020, Salvador Vega had just two appearances, both in Málaga province, delighting spectators with his style at Estepona again (three ears) and at Málaga itself (one ear). Finally, Alejandro Talavante disappointingly opted for a temporada on the margins, his only appearance being at Arles in September, when he cut three ears in a mano a mano with Andrés Roca Rey.

Regular performers and disappointments (2021 Season Review Pt4)

Difficult times - and worse to come?(2021 Season Review Pt5)

Bulls at El Batán