Mont de Marsan, July 23: Excellent Philippe Cuillé novillos and La Quinta toros

Mont de Marsan’s Saturday feria programme involved a morning novillada con picadores of Philippe Cuillé bulls (domecqs) and an afternoon corrida of La Quinta animals. Neither festejo disappointed in terms of the bulls, although the crowd’s behaviour in the corrida left something to be desired.

The novillada

Indeed, the morning event saw not only worthwhile bulls, the cuillés looking great and charging strongly, but a rarity in this feria to date - good piccing and well-delivered pairs of banderillas.

The morning triunfador was the novillero who also triumphed in this year’s San Isidro, Álvaro Alarcón. From Torrijos (Toledo), Alarcón impressed with his facility to torear, but had a tendency to pass his animals in straight lines and to go on too long in his faenas, with the result that pases enganchados became more common (he himself was caught in the final stage of his opening faena) and the initial positive view on the novillero was dissipated. He was awarded his first ear after a pinchazo and estocada, and a strong sword to his second animal led to a further apendice, Alarcón going out on shoulders at the festejo’s end.

A more impressive novillero, I thought, was Christian Parejo, from Chiclana but an alumno of the Béziers bullfight school here in France. His toreo involved longer, curving passes. His swordwork cost him any trophy from his first cuillé, but with his second, he pulled out all the stops, commencing his capework with a larga cambiada de rodillas, verónicas, chicuelinas and a revolera and his faena with a pase cambiado de espalda. Some fine series with the muleta were closed with a sequence of circulares. The estocada went in to the hilt, but was too far back, leading to two attempts to descabellar: the lad was still awarded a deserved ear.

The Frenchman on the cartel, the tall and strutting Yon Lamothe, had a disappointing morning. A desarme and protracted swordwork lost him any trophies from his first novillo, while his second bull was by far the worst of the novillada. It overturned the picador and his horse, hooked, retreated and only charged short distances in its faena, Lamothe eventually managing some muletazos beside the barrera before killing with a pinchazo and estocada. At the end of both his faenas, his supporters, clearly in a minority in their petitioning, seemed to believe that, if they made enough noise, the president would give way and produce a handkerchief. But that was not the case.

The corrida

Three-quarters of the small CTL contingent at Mont de Marsan opted to spend the time between lunch and the afternoon corrida resting on the hill overlooking the La Plumaçon bullring. As a consequence, we spent a great deal of the festejo removing various small insects from our skin and clothes!

Antonio Ferrera, having his second appearance in this year’s feria after triumphing here in last year’s Covid-shortened affair, was idiosyncratic early on, determined to place his first santacoloma almost on the other side of the ring for its first entry to the picador. The second placing was a more successful one. Come the faena, he began strongly with series of derechazos, the crowd roaring its approval, but couldn’t manage anything of note with the muleta in the left hand. He returned the cloth to the right, but suddenly (and I have never experienced it to this extent before) the crowd’s attitude towards him had changed and now they were roaring their disapproval. The reasons for this were unclear - was it because Antonio was moving away from focusing on toreo with his wrist to retreating toreo with his feet? Or was it because they were hoping for an indulto, because the protests grew even louder when the matador collected the estoque and killed with a pinchazo and bajonazo. The bronca was followed by applause for the bull en arrastre.

What made things even worse was that, every time Ferrera had something to do with events in the ring from then on, he was barracked and booed. Although some of us applauded his half-kneeling capework to his second laquinta, the atmosphere did not improve. Antonio opted against any quites, asking his cuadrilla to do the work instead, then shook his head in the faena when the barracking continued, walking away from the bull and looking towards the main source of opposition until he was persuaded by his cuadrilla to return for further decent derechazos. But eventually the foot toreo and the jeering returned and a despondent matador opted to give cutting passes before killing with a further bajonazo.

Ginés Marín improved the crowd’s mood with his performances. His first bull was given some perfunctory capework, but there was an excellent start to its faena with a series of half-kneeling passes, followed by some fine derechazos. Finding things not so straightforward on the left horn, Ginés returned to the right, bringing off tight circles of derechazos before releasing the animal with a chest pass and a pase de firma, frequently looking at the tendido as the sequence was closed. There was a desarme at the faena’s end, and then a low sword and three descabellos brought silence, while the bull was applauded en arrastre.

His other opponent had the classic La Quinta grey look and proved the best bull of the afternoon. Marín met it with some lovely verónicas, then took it to the picador with finely-judged walking chicuelinas before a quite of further verónicas. He began the faena, dedicated to the public, on his knees, starting with a misjudged arrucina, which he somehow got away with, and moving on to derechazos and chest passes before standing to bring off good series of derechazos and naturales. He ended the faena with a long, unsustained, sequence of bernadinas before delivering a media estocada and a solo descabello, winning an ear while another La Quinta left the plaza to applause.

Ángel Téllez, the surprise San Isidro triunfador brought in here as a replacement for Emilio de Justo, was a disappointment for many spectators viewing the toledano for the first time, particularly on his second bull which kept coming forward and sent the inexperienced matador all over the ring as he boringly attempted to peg passes. The killing didn’t help - seven pinchazos, an estocada caída, descabello and two avisos being the end result. (Antonio Ferrera, helping the youngster out as director de la lidia, was once again jeered for his pains.) But, with his first bull - also killed badly - Téllez constructed a decent faena, almost entirely given with the left hand, including de frente naturales at the end, showing his nascent talent and earning a vuelta.

The mayoral of La Quinta was, rightly, called into the arena at the end of the corrida to take saludos for what had been an excellent string of bulls.