And so to Murcia Province, in the company of fellow editors Jock Richardson and Joe Ortiz, to accept the USA’s National Association of Taurine Club’s International Award for Exceptional Dedication to la Fiesta Brava to La Divisa (the Club Taurino of London’s bi-monthly magazine) for over 40 years’ coverage of bullfighting in the English language.

Calasparra

But first, some novilladas.

Plans were to attend the second half of Calasparra’s Feria de Arroz, but a delayed airport arrival meant that Jock and I arrived at the town’s portátil just as the trumpets were sounding for the commencement of the third lidia of the evening. Finding the taquilla closed, we had a frustrating time at one of the plaza gates as the gatekeeper tried to summon “the boy” with the keys to the taquilla, olés ringing out inside the plaza. The “boy” turned out to be a great deal older than the gatekeeper!

By the time we entered the plaza, the band was playing to accompany Marcos Linares’ faena and we were treated to some exquisite naturales, the El Pincha novillo following the cloth beautifully. The youngster stuck mainly to the left hand, but added half-kneeling and de frente passes for variety. This was a two-ear performance, but a crosswise estocada and six attempts to descabellar saw it end with just a vuelta for Linares, together with a merited vuelta en arrastre for his novillo. Marcos had more trouble killing his second novillo after a faena in which he tended to throw the muleta outwards, but was awarded a compensatory oreja before bringing out the mayoral to take saludos (this string of El Pincha bulls were later designated the best of the feria).

The day’s triunfador was the valenciano Jordi Pérez El Niño de las Monjas, who cut an ear from each of his bulls. However, his second faena was unimpressive, Jordi using the pico to keep the animal away from him and send it outwards. There were, though, some nice feet-together derechazos towards the end and a good kill, Pérez making full use of his height.

The third novillero was Jorge Molina, an alumno of Madrid’s Escuela José Cubero Yiyo. He produced some fine muletazos, standing his ground with a wide-horned enemigo and taking the animal around him, but lost an ear after a half-sword, estocada and seven descabellos, taking saludos instead.

The following day, the NATC and CTL members in town had lunch together, hosted by the Club Taurino de Calasparra. The club has its own bar and office, and the three clubs made presentations to each other once the meal was over. Calasparra boasts several peñas, of which the Club Taurino is the most prestigious.

*João d’Alva was doing well, then got caught*

Today’s festejo featured Prieto de la Cal novillos, and it turned out to be a truly ferocious affair. The novillero who impressed most was the Portuguese, João d’Alva, tutored at El Juli’s Arganda school and appearing with picadors for just over a year. His initial faena was brief, as his novillo was impossible on the left horn, but he managed to achieve some derechazos and killed well. With his second bull, he produced some decent capework and banderillas (all today’s novilleros placed their own sticks) and was doing well in the faena when he got caught, the novillo ripping into his traje at groin level but apparently without injuring the youngster. D’Alva recovered for naturales ayudados but needed two pinchazos and a media estocada to down the animal, probably losing an ear in the process.

*Víctor Cerrato is carried to the infirmary*

Víctor Cerrato, from Leganés, and Miguel Andrades, from Jerez, were out of their depth with these wily and dangerous opponents - unsurprisingly, given that their respective debuts with picadors were in June and August this year! Cerrato’s second animal was one of four white prietos today and was so tall and antagonising that it drove a section of the crowd to move from their seats simply by looking at them! Before long, Cerrato was caught in a huge tossing, landing badly and being carried, unconscious, to the infirmary, where d’Alva was already being checked over. To his credit, the Portuguese returned to the ring to torear and kill the tricky animal.

*Miguel Andrades in a poorly judged al quiebro with banderillas cortas. The novillo slammed him against the barrera and Andrades was lucky to escape a goring*

The ferocity and danger of the Prieto de la Cal novillos had made this an unforgettable novillada. Later, back at our hotel, Jock Richardson and I encountered the mayoral and congratulated him on today’s string of bulls. He agreed they’d been unique and highly aggressive and looked pretty pleased with the way things had gone despite the novilleros’ lack of success.

*Fuenteymbros in the encierro and a scene from the subsequent suelta de vaquillas*

The next morning, we went to see Calasparra’s final street encierro and suelta de vaquillas - free events that draw the Feria de Arroz’s biggest crowds. Because agreement had not been reached to use the town’s permanent bullring this year, the encierro route was a long one, most of it uphill, but the Fuente Ymbros novillos were still running strongly towards the end of it. In the portátil, the suelta de vaquillas took the form of two sections, the first a free-for-all in the arena and the second featuring a number of selected (and clearly experienced) participants.

*Jorge Martínez’s afternoon began strongly but ended early and painfully*

The chief draw for the final novillada was the murciano Jorge Martínez, amongst the top five in the escalafón de novilleros and tipped to take the alternativa before long. The tousle-haired youngster started well with an excellent series of verónicas. His work in the faena showed the same high degree of temple, although there was lots of looking at the crowd mid-pass and the novillo was not keen to play its part, eventually retreating to the barrera, where Martínez continued his toreo. As the lad went in for the kill, the bull didn’t follow the muleta at all, instead inflicting a cornada affecting the base of the penis, foreskin and scrotum. A grimacing Jorge went in to kill for a second time, downing the animal, and was carried off to the infirmary before a peón collected an ear on his behalf.

*Marcos Linares on his second afternoon*

Marcos Linares was brought back for the closing novillada, substituting for Sergio Felipe whose temporada had ended as a result of injury, and was the day’s triunfador and, indeed, the triunfador de la feria. With Martínez’s percance, Marcos faced three novillos and won two ears from his first animal after a fine faena of linked, curving, passes and a strong estocada, and a single ear from his substantially sized second.

The third novillero on the cartel was another murciano, Víctor Acebo, who debuted with picadors in March this year. He didn’t appear to know what he was doing in a faena of single passes with his first fuenteymbro, although he did manage some short series with his second. His paisanos overlooked his poor first estocada and successfully petitioned for an ear after his second swordthrust downed the novillo.

Albacete

With Calasparra’s feria over, the next day, following a morning presentation of my book Toros & Toreros (see this blog’s ‘Shop’ section), we joined the NATC members in a trip to Albacete to see the opening novillada of that city’s feria, featuring local Los Chospes bulls for Cristian Pérez, Alejandro Peñaranda and Lalo Lambert Lalo de María.

First in the order, Cristian Pérez, from Hellín, has been a novillero con picadores for the last nine years; his strong performance this afternoon was consequently quite a surprise. But he made the most of the two best bulls of the festejo.

*Cristian Pérez was unconscious at one stage, but his Albacete afternoon had a happy ending*

He met his first novillo a portagayola, eventually following that up with some respectable verónicas. It was good to see David Adalid (formerly of Javier Castaño’s cuadrilla) place the banderillas. After dedicating to the public, Pérez’s performance in the faena was patchy. The novillo gave him a warning, then, a short while later, caught and tossed him; the novillero was lifted, unconscious, and taken to the infirmary, from where he soon returned, jacketless, limping and clutching his ribs on his right side. He managed some very rough manoletinas before delivering a fine estocada and winning an ear.

He was better still on his second novillo. Continuing without his jacket, Cristian produced some good capotazos, including walking chicuelinas to the horse. With the muleta, he kept the bull in series, ending each with broad smiles towards the tendidos - a happy man. His first attempt with the estoque saw the sword skid along the bull’s back, but a second three-quarters estocada saw the bull eventually sit and a further ear was his, a salida en hombros assured. A number of spectators unsuccessfully asked for the bull to be given a vuelta en arrastre.

Alejandro Peñaranda dealt well with his initial novillo, an animal that cut in on its right horn, producing some series con temple, but a bajonazo kill prevented me from joining the successful petition for an oreja. His second fuenteymbro departed the ring to whistles, its immobility having led to lots of fruitless citing and muletazos of varying quality.

Lalo de María’s presence was the main reason this NATC trip to Albacete had been organised, as the French novillero was to feature in the Americans’ plans for the next day. The long-legged youngster showed glimpses of a very individual style, but was disappointing, ineffective with the sword and received whistles at the end of his second lidia. It later turned out this was only his seventh novillada with picadores and it seemed to me a mistake by his manager, former matador José Antonio Campuzano, to put him on in a prestigious and serious ring like Albacete at this early stage in his career.

Murcia

From Albacete, we rushed south to Murcia for the NATC’s Gala Dinner in the city’s historic and beautiful Real Casino de Murcia, a collection of stunning rooms (including an English library) with artwork and a traditional venue for cultural events.

After an excellent meal, and in the presence of José Antonio Campuzano and Lalo de María who’d also driven down from Albacete, Lore Monnig, on behalf of the NATC, presented the three La Divisa editors in attendance with the NATC’s International Award and individual mementos. I thanked the NATC for their recognition of La Divisa; Joe Ortiz pointed out the important role that contributors to the magazine played in its success; and Jock Richardson paid tribute to the CTL’s Founding President, George Erik, without whose efforts the CTL and its magazine would not exist.

Yecla

The following day, we joined the NATC in a trip to the ranch of Nazario Ibáñez, situated off the main road between Yecla and Almansa.

*The indoor tienta ring on the Nazario Ibañez ranch and (top) the chapel beside it*

It was already apparent as we travelled up the drive to the finca, that this was a ganadería on which lavish funds had been spent (Señor Ibáñez has made a fortune from the sale of motorbike helmets). Particularly impressive was the indoor tienta ring, complete with chapel and rooms for entertaining and relaxing.

*Top: One of the Nazario Ibáñez novillos. Above: The novillos being given their daily run in the company of other livestock*

Outside, we were shown a semental in the corrales to the ranch’s old tienta ring and helped move cattle into other sections so that the animal was left with just one vaca for company. Then we took a tour of the ranch grounds, accompanying some vacas and a calf into the area where eight novillos, due to be fought and killed in the coming week, were kept. The novillos were then taken out, together with the other animals, for their daily run down to the finca and back again. The ganadería was formed from vacas and sementales of Manolo González and González Sánchez-Dalp, the animals being of the Núñez encaste. Other areas of the ranch contained younger cattle, and almond, pistachio and olive trees are also grown, with many of the fields featuring irrigation systems.

*Lalo de María in the tienta ring, watched by José Antonio Campuzano*

Back at the indoor tienta ring, we watched the testing of two becerras and a becerro, with capework in the hands of Lalo de María, Samuel Navalón - a novillero sin picadores who is currently working on the ranch - and the American aficionado John Hofert. José Antonio Campuzano and the ganadero’s son, Jorge Ibáñez (who took the alternativa with Enrique Ponce as his padrino at Murcia in 2003), also did some caping after the others had finished.

Following some group photos, everyone retired for lunch, after which the NATC members stayed on for a talk from José Antonio Campuzano while the CTL contingent left for a corrida at Albacete, the final festejo of our trip.

Albacete

*Antonio Ferrera prepares to cape his opening fuenteymbro*

The corrida featured Fuente Ymbros bulls for Antonio Ferrera, Juan Leal and Álvaro Lorenzo. Both Ferrera and Lorenzo were disappointing, the former being whistled from the ring at the corrida’s end. The extremeño’s first bull, dedicated to the public, was an unhelpful, weak, animal, but his performance with his second fuenteymbro was particularly poor and ended with two swordthrusts running round the horns. Álvaro Lorenzo dedicated his first bull to the plaza too, but his faena didn’t have enough in it for an award, just occasional nice-looking passes, and drew ironic olés from the Sol tendidos. His second faena, with a bull presenting no apparent problems, was pretty half-hearted too. Lorenzo is at a point in his career when he needs to show some ambition, but there was no sign of it today.

One year ago, I wrote a blog castigating the French torero Juan Leal for his performance at this feria (see ‘Albacete Sept. 8: Nearly a vulgar Puerta Grande’). One reason I was so annoyed with him at the time was because I knew he had it in him to be an excellent matador de toros. Today, he fulfilled that expectation - he was stupendous.

Juan met his first bull with feet-together tafalleras, ended, to applause, with a revolera and a brionesa. Attempting a series of saltilleras in a quite, all given on the same spot, he eventually found himself caught by the bull, which ripped into his taleguilla, tossed him to the ground, then picked him up again with its horns. The cogida looked terrifying, but Leal was unharmed and immediately and coolly returned to give further saltilleras! The faena that followed was extraordinary. First, Juan met the bull in the centre of the ring to take it round him in an ojedista series. The Frenchman then went on to link passes superbly well, turning the bull around his body several times, and, in circulares, bring the bull back, the matador’s legs still crossed from the outcome of the previous pass. He entered well for the estocada, although the sword was placed rather low. Two ears were awarded nevertheless, and the bull departed to an ovation.

*A derechazo and Leal’s third sword to his second bull*

There was little capework to his second bull, Juan saving the animal for the faena, dedicated to the public like the first. The bull somersaulted twice in volteretas and initially kept its head high, but Leal eventually got it going round him in excellent series, the cloth held low. The matador entered three times for the kill, each time going over the horns despite being caught and tossed on the second entry, his traje ripped at the buttocks. The crowd, impressed, demanded, and got, a further ear. Juan Leal went out of the Puerta Grande having cut a total of three ears after working hard, suffering tossings in the process and producing two fine faenas - all with barely a hint of tremendismo.

We left the plaza very satisfied with our festejos in Calasparra and Albacete, the sounds of the city’s feria in our ears as we began our journey home to the UK.

(With special thanks to the NATC - and Lore Monnig in particular - and to Javier Carpes for their assistance with this trip.)

With NATC members in Calasparra, Albacete, Murcia and Yecla

Analysis of “a faenón”

Ten toreros having a good summer