As I was speeding along the motorway towards Orthez (I had managed to get lost twice on the journey from St Vincent de Tyrosse), worrying I would not make the morning novillada in time for its start, I cast my mind back to the numerous times I had been in this very same position (later that day, I found myself reminiscing about the many other times I’ve sat in Orthez’s plaza, as today, under a baking sun). I need not have worried - the Orthez Taurine Commission’s penchant for a few speeches before proceedings get underway meant that I walked into the plaza, 15 minutes after the advertised start time, to find the paseíllo in the process of forming itself. And the very hot sun was a mere inconvenience on a day when the ambitious Commission had excelled itself with two intriguing events - a morning novillada with Barcial bulls and an afternoon corrida concurso of bulls from Portugal, which must have taken some organising.

Novillada

The novillada took Orthez’s traditional form of four bulls for two novilleros, in this case Miguel Andrades, in his third season con picadores and having his third contract of the year, and Cristian Galeano Cid de María, 12th in the escalafón in his first season con picadores and a recent finalist in the Circuito de Novilladas de Madrid.

The first beautiful-looking barcial drew applause from the crowd on its entry to the arena and was impressive in the peto after receiving verónicas and a revolera from Andrades - there were four entries to the horse in all, after the novillo turned quickly away from the third. In the faena, Andrades produced a promising stretching natural before going on to the right hand, where achieving clean passes proved more difficult. Moving the muleta back to the left, the remainder of the faena consisted of single passes. After collecting the sword, Andrades managed some kneeling molinetes before killing with a pinchazo, estocada and four descabellos. The novillo was removed from the arena to deserved applause, while Andrades received silence.

The gaditano produced some pleasing initial capework to his second bull - verónicas, chicuelinas and a serpentina before walking the animal towards the picing area with chicuelinas. A quite de delantales was followed by a poor tercio de banderillas. Andrades places his own sticks, but was nearly caught on one misjudged pair and, in the next, was caught and fell against the estribo (the after-effects of this tossing led him to visit the plaza infirmary at the novillada’s end). The faena proved no easy affair with the bull searching for the man - Andrades had the muleta snatched from his hand at one point, then got tossed, and then had two serious warnings of further cogidas. Miguel flung his ayuda on to the sand in disgust, collected the estoque and killed with an estocada caída, taking saludos while the bull departed to silence.

Young Cid de María was a disappointment. He never looked to dominate either of his animals. Indeed, he never proferred the muleta forward, preferring to keep it level with his body, and his lidias were entirely defensive. His first barcial was manso, coming away from the picador thrice of its own accord, although it was nevertheless dedicated to the public. The second, another lovely beast, tended to look at the novillero more than the lure, causing the youngster to soon abort the faena. He downed his first novillo with an estocada caída, while a pinchazo halfway down the animal’s back and a reasonable estocada were needed to kill the second, Cid de María receiving silence on both occasions. He wasn’t helped by having a poor cuadrilla.

Corrida

The afternoon’s corrida featured bulls from six Portuguese ganaderías for the Mexican Sergio Flores, Noe Gómez del Pilar and Luis Gerpes, and the scene was nicely set when the first bull from Cañas Vigouroux - a large, muscular, well-horned jabonero - came out the toril gate.

This corrida included, I’ve seen Sergio Flores thrice - once in Mexico with commercial fare and twice in France with toros duros. Indeed, he had recently come from a successful afternoon in Céret with similar animals as he faced today. This afternoon, apart from some derechazos to this first animal, which tired rapidly in the faena after taking two puyazos, he was virtually absent.

His second animal was a black veleto from Herculano Silva and, despite this bull’s mobility, Flores cut this faena short after being criticised for not keeping still. The enjoyment came mainly from the work of his cuadrilla, ex-matador Gómez Escorial handling the brega and Víctor Hugo placing some excellent banderillas. Flores’ killing of his first bull was extended, but this one was downed with an estocada al encuentro, the bull being applauded en arrastre while some whistles were directed at Sergio.

Gómez del Pilar was the triunfador de la tarde after cutting two deserved ears from his first bull, an animal from Veiga Teixeira which, somewhat generously (although it had run in from a distance en varas), was given a vuelta en arrastre. Noe met it with some fine verónicas and a media, while the faena was conducted mainly on the right hand, including a couple of linked series, although the matador managed some decent naturales too before killing with an estocada. His second bull was from Palha, well-armed and almost six years old. The picador kept missing the bull completely with the puya en embroque and was booed out of the plaza. The palha displayed an uncertain charge in the faena, Gómez del Pilar managing some derechazos, but little else, before opting to abbreviate. Four pinchazos and a media estocada brought an aviso and silence for the torero, with a division of viewpoints over the bull en arrastre.

I thought Luis Gerpe had improved a lot since I last saw him in Madrid as a novillero: he should have done, as the web tells me the toledano took the alternativa nine years ago! He gave his first animal, from Jorge del Carvalho, some good-looking verónicas, although the ending of the lances were often not clean, and then embarked on walking chicuelinas to take the animal to the picador. However, the bull was now being whistled as it was lame on a hind leg, and so was devuelto and replaced by a bull from María Cascón, fuera del concurso. This animal walked into its second puyazo, and perhaps it was the qualities of the bull or the forward estocada that ended things, to my surprise, with no petition for an ear. Gerpes had performed well in the faena, keeping the muleta low throughout. His final bull was an impressive-looking, large-horned animal from Antonio Silva, but like the first bull of the corrida, showed little wish to move come the faena despite both of its puyazos having been mere touches. The highlights from Gerpe were further walking chiculelinas and a strong estocada. Both his lidias ended to palmas.

‘Paulista’, the Veiga Teixeira bull, won the prize for the concurso’s best bull, while its picador, Juan Manuel Sangüesa, won the award for the best-executed tercio de varas and ex-matador Medhi Savalli for the most taurine moment (his banderillas to the last bull of the afternoon). All in all, it had been another fascinating taurine day in Orthez, well worth the journey and the discomfort in the plaza.