Jock Richardson

17 May - Back on the Ant Hill for San Isidro 2024

Devotees of Las Ventas may be pleased to read that the swifts still swoop over the seething mass of spectators at the corridas of San Isidro; the river of latecomers still swarm in until well after the paseíllo; the stream between bulls to the bars and urinarios is still in full spate, though the ponedores have eased that situation by closing the gates as soon as the next bull is in the ring, thus following the reglamentos with regard to re-entering one’s seat; the cognoscenti of Seven are still squealing their “miaus” before each bull even enters the ring; the tango clappers in Eight still hate everything; and an angry speech from the high tendidos is never long delayed. “What” as they say, “is not to like?”

Spoiler alert! What follows can only be one person’s perspective on where the toreros and ganaderos have got to at this phase of the temporada as they appear in the most important bullring in the world – apologies to the hidrocálidos – where, one hopes, they may be relied upon to do their best.

I am convinced that one of the toreros we saw today did not do his best; we will come to that later.

Victoriano del Río had sent one toro (1) de Cortés and four bearing his own name for Sebastién Castella, José María Manzanares and Tomás Rufo. That had been hailed on onetoroTV as un cartelazo for weeks: it certainly had the No Hay Billetes card posted. The bulls varied in appearance from the novillo to the true toro, had impressive cornamiento and, in general, were amenable to good play by the toreros.

Sebastién Castella continues to convince that he has gained in maturity and seriousness since he returned from his sabbatical. But that maturity was only allowed to emerge in snatches with the anovillado type with which he opened the afternoon. It was totally lacking in character and Castella was forced to extract pases from it in a type of toreo as so-so as was the nature of the bull. Only once did he emerge from the terrain of ordinariness in a cambio de mano so smooth and velvety that most probably did not see it. He had better fortune with the fourth bull, a smooth and directly charging animal worthy of his statuesque opening, This master of the estatuario had mouths gaping with his accuracy and serenity. But the centre did not hold, and things started to fall apart. He lost the bull’s attention, and it ran off to ensure a finale in which he gradually had to persuade it to los medios to kill it.

Manzanares’s current casual approach to his toreo has been mentioned in these pages before. I once read an interview with Curro Romero in which he was interrogated about his regular lack of success and many fracasos. Romero assured his interviewer that he never entered the arena with intention of defrauding those who had paid to see him. No doubt José Marí and the other toreros who sometimes - or often - disappoint would echo that sentiment. But it is hard to watch him continuously passing bulls of no obvious danger at a huge lateral distance, in a style based on single pases, some elegant but none impressive, interspersed with readjusting trots, and feel that this is the best a seasoned matador can do. At least two spectators watched him lining up his first for his no longer instantaneously effective kill recibiendo while whispering, “It is not going to work”. It didn’t; but his failure was enough to win him some applause. He did not even get that after another structureless faena without heart to the fifth bull.

Tomás Rufo built a veritable saga of pases de rodillas to his first in a kind of declaration that he was a man who was about to do his best. While this is not the kind of thing this aficionado thinks necessary, Rufo did pull the bull round cargando la suerte and he did link the pases. It was the kind of thing onetoroTV calls “muy meritorio”. The bull was weak, but Rufo demonstrated his taurine intelligence by punctuating his serene and templado toreo with rest periods for the bull. They tended to stretch beyond the kind of tension-raising pauses that communicate so clearly to the audience; they were functional, nevertheless. The tension came when Rufo momentarily forgot that death lurks behind every mistake and was caught and tossed violently. Every torero on the cartel was in the ring to transport him to the infirmary; all were shaken off, the bull lined up and a lethal estocada with blood flow ended the faena. The lad deserved his ear. That he was unable to continue the demonstration of his talents was more down to the entirely weak and characterless sixth bull.

18 May - Willing Men Rise to the Challenges of Demanding Bull

Miguel Ángel Perera, Emilio de Justo and Ginés Marín were presented with five grey la Quintas in a range from 543 kilos to 589 kilos and one (the sixth which fell to Ginés Marín) black one at 627 kilos. They were to provide an interesting afternoon.

I cannot recall seeing Perera make the long walk to the bullpen gate to perform a larga. He did so today, and his march proved to be a statement of intent. The larga was a wee bit shaky, but none the less meritorious for that. The close early verónicas were much more secure. The second tercio was enlivened by El Fini with two perfect cuarteos. The opening of commanding doblones and derechazos was clean, close and templado: an excellent start. As he encouraged the bull with derechazos under the presidency, it was clear by its searching and head lifting that it was, if allowed to use it, an assassin with its right horn. Whether it was a search for a less comforting terrain for the bull, and escape from the wind in the shade, or something else, he drew it to the directly opposite side of the ring, and, not without the shouts of the knowing spectators, switched to the left hand. The naturales that followed were as beautiful as they’re effective. By the end, they’re done singly with adjustments, but Perera was in control. When he had killed with a pinchazo off a curve and a media estocada from a direct entry, most people thought he deserved an ear. The president, wrongly, had another view and did not grant the majority appeal. Perera opened to the fourth in the same secure manner as he had shown with the first, this time with flat verónicas of great beauty and control. The pics, as is common with Perera, were light. That was just as well because the bull had two faults: it tended to stumble, and it tended to lift its head unexpectedly. Perera was cool and masterful as he built a faena of linked derechazos and naturales sewn flawlessly together in series. It was great toreo and proves that, far from being the same old Perera or a tedious has been, as some would dub him, he is man at the height of his considerable powers. He killed with a direct estocada and rightly took a vuelta.

Emilio de Justo burst into life as he opened to the second, a weak, slow-moving, Santa Coloma with proving verónicas followed by tight and hair-raising chicuelinas in a quite after a light pic. Marín replied, with some chicuelinas of his own that were his best work of the afternoon. The bull was still going well enough in the second suerte and Algabeño had to take his hat off. De Justo was faced with a difficult task because the bull had slowed considerably. He dealt with the problem by resting the bull in long, tension-building periods in which the only action was de Justo’s crossing to the precise citing position for his next close and sculptured right or left-handed series. It was all very engaging work. The tension dissipated somewhat as he drew things to an end with single pases. He killed with an estocada caída and was rightly applauded. The fifth bull stumbled slightly on entry, and it seemed that it might prove to be weak. De Justo walked it to los medios with some beautifully accurate verónicas. The picador had to cross the line to incite the charge, but the approach was exciting when it came. It took the second well-placed pic well from closer to the horse. All signs of weakness gone; the bull charged the banderilleros so well that good old Morenito de Arles had to take a salute after his great pairs. The faena started well with exquisite doblones and a chest pass. Then things took a turn. All innocence gone; the bull threw all its so-far hidden aggression into pursuit of its recognised enemy. It lunged at Emilio de Justo with its head raised and threw him like a rag doll into the jaws of death. So frightening it was that every torero de a pie on the programme was in the ring for the rescue. Fortunately, de Justo had not ben gored. Nevertheless, he was now toreando on nerves and experience as the bull watched and searched for him. De Justo won with a series of naturals from across the line of charge ended with an almost cheeky trincherilla. Wonderful! He took a while to effect the kill with estocada and descabello to the sound of two avisos - none of which prevented a clamorous vuelta al ruedo.

Ginés Marin gave the impression all afternoon that he did not realise how to deal with these far from ordinary bulls. The first knocked his father off his horse, which was just as spectacular as had been Ginés’s portagayola moment a few minutes before. The faena contained a couple of complete and linked series of derechazos that proved Marín’s skill and style before the torero lapsed into single pegged passes interspersed with readjusting trots. It went on for a long time and all ended with a procession of pinchazos. Ginés may have felt badly done by when he drew the 627 kilo giant in the sorteo. He must have wished himself in another place when he found that he just could not understand how to deal with it. He tried to pass it with a variety of single pases with each hand, none of which had much affect, and when he decided kill, it was with an estocada so atravesada that it emerged from the bull’s side, a pinchazo, and an estocada. Ginés Marín had not had his day.

19 May - Here They Whistle Miuras

And to be honest, some of them deserved whistling. On the other hand, they were a beautiful lot of bulls with the conformation, colouration, and armament for which they are famous. They were faced by Rafaelillo, an expert in the field; Juan de Castilla; and José Enrique Colombo.

Rafaelillo had a bad afternoon. He welcomed his first in his usual style, with rushed but calculated low verónicas to a head and feet-raising Miura. He was soon disarmed, leaving the cape hanging from the horns of the bull. The bull worked hard in its two firm pcs, but its feet were buckling as it left the second encounter. It was to charge no more. It put the banderilleros through hell as they threw their single sticks into its flanks and it stood looking at Rafaelillo as if notifying him in the words of Martin Luther, “Here I stand!” Soon people were telling the Murcian to kill the bull, which he did with three pinchazos and an estocada desprendida. His second bull was 626 kilos worth of picturesque skin colours and extreme lack of intention to make a spectacle of itself by participating in the lidia. It worked in a couple of pics as if to preserve the good name of the ganadería and, after cooperating with Juan de Castilla in a quite of gaoneras, forced the banderillos to plumb the depths of their knowledge and afición to put on an excellent effort. How can one not sympathise with Rafaelillo? He was faced with a braking, falling, monster with little appetite for battle. He squeezed short derechazos from an all but stationary bull, sometimes having to walk all the way around it to get it to charge and always talking in pitched-voice encouragement for some cooperation. It did not come, so he accepted defeat and killed with an estocada. He had worked very hard for his well-deserved saludos.

I watched Juan de Castilla as a novillero sin picadors in San Adrián and he impressed me there with his confidence and commitment; he once gurued me in a tienta and I was impressed by his patience and kindness. I find it hard not to have a soft spot for him. His first bull today tended to fall and had a penchant for hooking with its head held high. We might have been back in San Adrián. He threw himself into his work with fierce commitment and produced an unexpectedly successful faena. He started on his knees, citing the bull from near a ring diameter away, and caught it in a series of complete derechazos. He did it again from closer to the bull and ended the overture with a handsome left-handed chest pass. The well-structured faena comprised repeated series of right and left-handed passes delivered with clarity, competence and artistry. Had he not required two pinchazos before his estocada, he would surely have won an ear. The fifth bull was a bad one in the catalogue of bulls. A typically grey Miura, it jumped the barrera twice to escape its destiny. And it was soon stumbling and charging in short bursts. To create an artistic faena with a bull of this nature is, clearly, impossible. To torear according to los cánones, sometimes exposing the body between the horns to incite a charge, is not. And neither, though it must be difficult, is it to maintain temple through the short charges of a weak bull. Juan de Castilla did all these things and provided a tense and complete faena of great merit. His estocada was as honest as everything else he had done, his addition to an interesting miurada - priceless.

Jesús Enrique Colombo, who hails from Venezuela, is another confident and competent torero. He welcomed his first, the moderately weighted Halconero of 573 kilos with beautiful verónicas, with each of the series ended with a disdainful drop of the hand. After a fine surety de pics, Colombo made a quite of clean and close chicuelinas. All was going well and, while the banderilleros executed a sensible lidia, Colombo prepared for an epic suerte de banderillas. In three majestic cuarteos, he had himself, the bull, and the audience totally engaged in the action. It was wonderful. The beginning of the faena was equally satisfying. The first half unfolded with series after series of linked derechazos and naturales, Colombo in total control. Then things started to crumble. The charges - and the pases - became shorter and shorter and the pauses between them longer and longer. With his sense of direction lost, the poor lad ended up killing with a succession of descabellos. The sixth bull was 637 kilos worth of authentic Miura. It had that greyhound shape under a traditional grey skin, and it was not keen to cooperate in the lidia, a behaviour probably accentuated by its weakness. After a stumbling journey through the initial stages, it, and Colombo, created spectacle in the banderillas. If Colombo had taught us what a brilliant suerte de banderillas is with his first bull, he showed us the very opposite with this one. His huge cuarteos were spectacular, but the farpas were placed muy a toro pasado in most amateurish entries and placements. It did not take long for the bull to grow wise and for Colombo to lose connection with it. He killed with a pinchazo-metisaca and an estocada.

It had been an interesting corrida with two foreign toreros trying very hard to succeed and a Spaniard having the worst possible luck in the draw.

Post scriptum: though I habitually refuse to read the critics until I have written my own reports, I read them as soon as I can. Rosario Pérez used most of her report next day to tell the story of Juan de Castilla’s day. He killed two bulls in Vic Fesenzac, a Pagés Mailhan and a Prieto de la Cal, no easy bulls, in the morning, and then took a plane to travel nearly a thousand kilometres to Las Ventas for his second corrida of the day. Who says the fiesta is just one boring event after another? It is the greatest spectacle invented by man and made so by smiling superheroes like Juan de Castilla.

May 21 - A Novillada in an Icebox

I have climbed every Munro in Scotland, many of them in the depths of winter; I have spent many nights sleeping in snow holes; but only once have I been as cold as I was this afternoon in Las Ventas. That was on a return to Malta from a flight practising the dropping of night photography flares over Libya when the heating in our Canberra PR9 failed. On both occasions, I learned what hypothermia is. It is no fun. I couldn’t hold my pencil then and I could not hold it tonight and the urge to be somewhere else was overpowering. Until now, I have believed the Princess Royal implicitly. “There is no such thing as inclement weather, only inappropriate clothing.” But I expected a Madrid, so the appropriate clothing was in Scotland and the need for it was in Spain, so her good advice could not apply.

Most of my experience of Alejandro Peñaranda has been gleaned from onetoroTV and CMM media. The impression gained has been, overall, very good indeed. I have been thinking for months that he is ready for the alternativa. He did nothing today to alter that view. His first Fuente Ymbro was impressive in appearance, weighed 514 kilos, and was slightly distracted on entry. Thus, his opening lances were tentative and incomplete. The novillo charged the horse from a distance and took a substantial pic and it was well placed for the second, light, encounter. The novillo’s reluctance to concentrate persisted during the banderillas, but by the beginning of the faena, it had settled down. Peñaranda is a seasoned novillero now, having won several competitions, and he shows it in his work. In the early phase of the faena, he was trying to torear in classical mode, but the focus of the bull was such that the work was ragged with enganches. He persisted and by the end his single pass-and-trot orthodox pases were pleasing to watch. His ending with a series of pases circulares was meritorious. He killed with a pinchazo and an estocada and there was a majority appeal for an ear which the president did not evaluate accurately. The fourth bull was a jabonero at 510 kilos. Well-armed, aggressive and positive, it required a matador with the same qualities. Peñaranda fitted it perfectly. From the confident opening verónicas to a faena of right and left-handed pases - the cite distances accurate, the stages of the pase neatly effected with temple, precision and grace. His work on the left hand was particularly impressive and his ligazón perfect. For me, Peñaranda shares a fault with many novilleros. When they encounter an animal that refuses to stop charging, they tend to go on for too long. It is more culpable in Las Ventas where nearly eight thousand of the good people of 7 and 8 are telling them by shouts and handclap to kill the bull. Fortunately, he killed with an estocada and cut the deserved ear.

Ismaél Martín is Swiss and had an unfortunate baptism in Las Ventas last Otoño, when he received a severe goring. That he walked from the plaza today is a miracle. Both of his novillos were difficult Fuente Ymbros, and difficult Fuente Ymbros - pure Juan Pedro Domecq in ancestry for the detractors of the strain - are not opponents for the inexperienced. Ismaél was destined to be catched a lot. That was because he did not understand his animals. He started quite well with some complete but slightly rough verónicas, but when he chose to place his own banderillas, all Hell broke loose. He placed them singly all over the novillo’s hide and his cuadrilla sweated the big drop to preserve some sort of decorum in the ring. He made a good start to his faena with a string of confident estatuarios, but from then on it was all very rough and expedient indeed: pegged single pases with each hand, frequent enganches and frequent episodes of the novillero being chased around the ring. There was a potentially successful series of derechazos at the end, but it was spoiled when he was bumped. He killed with a bajonazo.

The most outstanding feature of Jarocho’s first work was a close series of chicuelinas by Peñaranda. The bull charged erratically in the faena in which Jarocho resorted to a litany of single pases with each hand. As is so frequently the case, these looked appropriate and were in themselves elegant, templados and in a staccato way beautiful. But they lack tension and left the viewer wishing for more, especially linkage. By the end, the feeling was being conveyed that there was more in this complex animal than Jarocho was extracting from it.

I had walked out of one of the 2500 festejos I have seen before the end. That was in Bilbao once when we had a boat to catch to get home 1500 miles drive away to work 36 hrs later, smelly, unshaven and unwashed - those were the days. José Luis Moreno was none the worse of my not seeing him torear his Miura. The seasoned mountaineer knows when to turn back and I, shivering, unfocussed and losing control of my limbs, had almost reached the point of no return. And Jarocho was none the worse for my not seeing him torear his Fuente Ymbro. I did read about it in the paper next day. Jarocho, in a torrent of courage, intelligence and left-handed magic, had conquered those left in Las Ventas with adequate clothing and forced them to give him two ears. Lesson: dress adequately and see Jarocho at every opportunity.

22 May - Another Corrida of the Same old, Same old Domecqs

I am no more a supporter of the domecq encaste than I am of any other. All of them provide bulls that provide excitement and spectacle, and all of them produce animals only fit for the table. I often wonder what aficionados equivalent to the elite cognoscenti who write in English now about the Domecqs said of the bulls in the nineteenth century when the cabana brava was predominantly populated by Visahermosas. Did they whinge that they could only watch the same old, same old lesaqueñas or the same old same old Saavedra’s? They probably did, and it probably made them feel good. Their modern equivalents cannot always be delirious about what they see in Céret, Vic Fesenzac, Augustín de Guadalix and Cenicientos. I had to go to see more members of the Domecq encaste today. Toros de El Torero are a wee bit different from Juanpedros; they are from the Salvador Domecq line of the original Juan Pedro Domecq herd and look a bit different, but not so different that I can notice except when Núñez accidentals appear.

A prompt disarming put a quick end to David Galván’s welcome and there was no more cape work until the bull was taken to los tercios and charged hard to willingly take a pic. It left a second pic promptly. Álvaro Lorenzo gave the overture to his afternoon with a couple of tentative flaps. The bull was forceful and erratic, so the faena became a war of attrition between a bull that would not be easily dominated and a matador who was not in the mood to give in. It seemed to me that Galván’s main fault was his failure to bring the bull’s head down in the pases to fully smooth out the charges. But he was trying hard, and it showed. He positioned himself well in the cite and managed a linked series of naturales that were long, elegant, and led to precise endings. With the right, he resorted to single pases. They were nicely done but lacked the intensity of the linked pases. He must have been heading for an ear, but lost any chance of that in a metisaca, a pinchazo and an estocada. We had seen a nice aperitif to a much more complete faena that was to follow. The work did not start off too well; the bull was distracted, and the matador had to report to his dominating made. The suerte de pics and the lidia in the first two suertes was, as the denizens of 7 made clear, “Una capea”. Galván was not to be beaten by this apparently short-sighted wanderer. It had no difficulty in seeing him as he cited from a distance for pases that were long, rounded and with la suerte cargada. At first, they were delivered singly but the bull was soon cooperating and advanced to series of classical pases en redondo. He ended and elevated them, while uplifting his audience, with trincherazos and tricherillas, each one a model for a cartel de toros. When he ended with an estocada entera, he had won an ear. The majority wanted him to have two, but the presidencia was at the end as blind as the bull had been at the beginning.

Álvaro Lorenzo drew a noble and aggressive animal in second place and the best things of the next twenty minutes came from bull, picador and banderilleros. The bull committed itself well to one strong and one light pic from Francisco Javier Sánchez, and two pairs of banderillas by good old reliable Fernando Sánchez. How often los peones rub their gentle ointment on the wounded expectations of spectators in Las Ventas! Lorenzo has been a matador now for eight years and we might have expected him to have learned to do more than pegging single elegant, but disjointed, pases. I have not seen him do it differently often, if at all, and with this fine bull that he produced a faena of leaden, staccato ones was, I think, reprehensible. Inevitably, this poorly structured, ineffective, toreo that tires the bull without dominating it, leads to a poor kill: in this case, a metisaca, a pinchazo and, at last with some commitment, an estocada. Álvaro seemed to have pulled himself together slightly with the fifth bull, another noble and aggressive animal. His opening of linked and templadas verónicas was beautiful. The way Lorenzo cited the bull from a distance and drew it into a series of complete derechazos was uplifting. And two subsequent series of low derechazos were convincing also. Two nigh on perfect series of naturals, the second ended with a neat molinete and the well-made cake was ready for cutting. But not by Álvaro Lorenzo. He had to do some over-egging with trivial adornos. He was lucky that he only needed a media estocada and an estocada to kill. On this showing, and it is not unique in my experience of him, Álvaro Lorenzo still has a long away to go to achieve the artistry, variety and flair needed to reach the summit of toreo.

Ángel Téllez was the triunfador of the feria here the year before last. His luck in the draw today was not good. His first was a ground-pawing, watchful and searching manso. Strangely, it complied in a couple of pics. Expectedly, it stood very rigidly as the banderilleros tried to make it move. Téllez was doomed to that strenuous labour of drawing water from an empty well. He did so in sets of single pases to a bull that was deeply disinclined to move. It took Téllez a long time to reach a conclusion he should have reached five minutes earlier: a pinchazo and atravesada and a descabello. The sixth bull was almost a mirror image of the third: halt, watchful, seeking to catch the body, not the lure. Téllez was in the last chance saloon. His triumph here in 2022 and disappointing performances last year had won him only one contract in this San Isidro. He cannot be blamed for trying to make something of this last opportunity. All the lad could do was produce a leaden succession of single pass and trot pases lasting far beyond anybody’s need. The worst aspect of the faena was that this obviously searching bull was bent on catching him, and he was unable to avoid that end. He had to jump in mid pass at one point and might have given up, but no, he went on and the bull caught him violently in the inevitable cogida. He was whole enough to kill with a huge succession of pinchazos and descabellos before the trip to the infirmary. The goring was not serious, so Téllez will be back. Let’s hope he has better luck.

Performances from the most important feria in the world (Part I)

Jock Richardson

San Isidro, May 23: Diamonds in the dust

A San Isidro preview