Full houses at La Feria del Aficionado

Roy Gittings

(Image by Roy Gittings)

Once again, the Peña 3 Puyazos has organised its annual feria in San Agustín del Guadalix, this being the fifth in succession. As on previous occasions, the format was a novillada on Saturday morning and corridas de toros on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. The Feria has been gaining praise since the first one in 2022 and this year both corridas were “no hay billetes” and the novillada only just missed out on that billing.

First event

In bright sunshine with the temperature well above 20ºC, the Feria opened at noon on Saturday 25 April with a novillada in the format of a desafío with two novillos from the ranch of Salvador Guardiola and two from that of Isaías and Tulio Vázquez. All four were impeccably presented but lacking in casta.

The novilleros were the Portuguese João D’Alva (verde y plata),whose twenty-sixth birthday was on the Friday and whose debut with picadors was in 2021 (he had six outings last season and today was his first this year), and Jesús de la Calzada(blanco y oro), whose first outing with picadors was in 2022. Last year, he performed 11 times and today was his second novillada this year.

D’Alva greeted ‘Escogido’ of Guardiola by performing a porta gayola. The novillo then went well in a few verónicas, but things changed drastically in the tercio de varas with ‘Escogido’ running out of gas, the picador piccing off-centre and the novillo hardly pushing at all. The novillero placed his own banderillas with no problems or emotion. The faena de muleta and kill were even worse, with the novillo not wanting any part in the proceedings which finished with a pinchazo and several descabellos. ‘Escogido’ was booed out of the ring.

D’Alba’s second (and third of the morning) was from the ranch of Isaías and Tulio Vázquez, a once dreaded ganadería whose animals are rarely seen these days, and both ‘Ilustre’, in third place and ‘Obeso’ in fourth, never lived up to the fame that the ganadería once had (see Angus Macnab’s The Bulls of Iberia). Again, the novillero went to the toril and performed a porta gayola, followed by verónicas with the novillo humillando. The first trip to the horse was run-of-the-mill, but D’Alba managed to leave the animal in the centre of the ring for the second, with ‘Ilustre’ running slowly to the horse for an off-centre pic. The novillo went from even further away in a third vara and a fourth, although there was little emotion in the encounters. However, the picador, Luc Tosello, won the prize for best picador of the morning.

‘Ilustre’ en varas (Image by Roy Gittings)

D’Alba again placed his own sticks and performed the third pair on his knees with a quiebro. The tercio de muleta was tedious and ended with a pure volapié because the novillo moved not one iota. Silence for both.

The second novillo of the morning, which fell to Jesús de la Calzada, was called ‘Oye-Poco’ and came from the ganadería of Guardiola. It was received with great applause. Unfortunately, it played little part in any of the tercios except the tercio de varas. De la Calzada downed it with a bajonazo to indifference from the spectators. The last Tulio had little to offer but it did run twice to the horse, even though there was no emotion in the encounter. De la Calzada finished it off with another bajonazo.

And off to a great lunch with 30-odd members of the Club Taurino of London.

Second event

The afternoon/evening session was a sold-out corrida with bulls of Prieto de la Cal (pure Veragua) in first, third and fifth and Reta de Casta Navarra (second, fourth and sixth) for matadors Francisco Javier Sánchez Vara (verde y oro), José Miguel Pérez Prudencio Joselillo (rojo y oro) and Francisco Montero Schneider (rojo oscuro y oro).

The presentation of the six bulls could not have been better. The bulls in each group were of the same build, varying only in colour of hide and horn formation.

‘Ligero’, of Prieto de la Cal, was awarded a great ovation when it appeared and ran hard to the boards. The dual between ‘Ligero’ and picador Francisco Navarrete was emotional as ‘Ligero’ went well from afar, pushing hard, and the varilarguero responded with well-placed pics, resisting the force of the bull. Sánchez Vara, now in his twenty-sixth year as a matador de toros and used to difficult bulls, placed three good pairs of sticks with the final pair al violín. He took precautions during the faena de muleta because ‘Ligero’ waited for the matador and never followed the muleta, being more interested in what was behind it. An estocada tendida finished proceedings.

The fourth of the evening was ‘Señor’ of Miguel Reta and what a “señor” it was, impressive with an outsize morillo and veleto horns. Sánchez Vara began with trasteo alto to lower the head. ‘Señor’ ran well to the horse, knocking it over at the first attempt, with picador, Jean Loup Aillet, piccing well in the other two charges. Sánchez Vara placed excellent sticks in three different parts of the plaza with another pair al violín to close the session. The faena de muleta was purely defensive, with an estocada trasera tendida ending the session.

The second of the evening for Joselillo was from the ganadería of Miguel Reta and came out trying to destroy the burladeros but wanted little to do with the capotes that were displayed to it. ‘Picuezo’ ran away from its first encounter with the horse, but, after some difficulty engaging with the capotes, ran quickly from the centre of the ring to take a trasera vara. In the final vara, the picador, Helder Pries, had to go to the centre of the ring to engage ‘Picuezo’, which then quickly ran off. There was a titanic struggle to place the three pairs of sticks with the bull standing and waiting for the banderilleros to enter its territory. Joselillo gave trasteo por la cara before a pinchazo hondo. The scene became somewhat Dantean as capes came and went trying to keep the bull still for Joselillo to execute another pinchazo and a descabello. 

‘Hocicón’, of Prieto de la Cal, which yielded an ear to Francisco Montero (Image from mundotoro.com)

Joselillo’s second bull, ‘Veragueño’ by name, was the last of the wonderful bulls of Prieto de la Cal and ran quickly to the capes shown to it. Juan Antonio Agudo gave a wonderful display to place four exciting varas with the bull each time running from the centre of the ring. Joselillo was always on the defensive in the faena de muleta and, as night fell and the wind began to blow colder, even more so. Two attempts with thrusts that were low and a descabello were greeted with relief.

Francisco Montero faced a wonderful peach-coloured Prieto de la Cal that came out rematando en tablas, but whose performance in the suerte de varas was somewhat nondescript. The banderilleros had to salute after an excellent suerte. Montero gave some trasteo por la cara to begin the faena de muleta, followed by series with both hands. ‘Hocicón’ followed the muleta as if it were from a commercial brand and fell from an excellent estocada. Montero was awarded an ear and ‘Hocicón’ received applause in the arrastre.

The final Reta bull, called ‘Trolero’, caused a bit of panic on entering, with the peones executing more flag-waving than control with the capotes. Gabin Rehabi gave us a wonderful tercio de varas and, not only that, we saw him move his mount from side to side and from front to back as if he was giving a lesson in dressage at the Real Escuela Andaluza de Arte Equestre in Jerez de la Frontera. ‘Trolero’ then took a querencia en tablas and Montero had to try to get pases whenever he could before the bull went back to tablas. The result of all his hard work was a sword thrust in the Rincon de Ordoñez depriving him of a puerta grande.

After over three hours of toreo, and as the prizes of the afternoon were awarded to banderillero Rubén Sánchez and picador Juan Antonio Agudo (both in the cuadrilla of Joselillo), the heavens opened and for more than an hour there was an absolute deluge. 

Third event

At dawn on Sunday 26 April, the clouds had blown away and the sun was surrounded by clear blue skies. The final corrida was another “no hay billetes” event and aficionados were eager to take their seats.

Today we were treated to a desafio of bulls from the ranches of Dolores Aguirre (encaste Conde de la Corte) and José Escolar (encaste Albaserrada) with the order of play being that of yesterday, i.e. Aguirre 1st, 3rd and 5th.

The toreros were Damian Castaño (rojo y oro), Juan de Castilla (rojo y oro) and Maxime Solera (blanco y oro). At the end of the paseíllo, all three toreros saluted montera en mano.

The event was opened by ‘Clavituerto’ from the ranch of Dolores Aguirre which was quite informal when charging the capes and the horse. It showed class when charging the muleta of Damian Castaño, but it was never aggressive and was downed with an estocada caida. The festive public applauded toro and torero.

The fourth was from the ranch of José Escolar and went by the name of ‘Carpintero’. It was corniveleto and was bent on destroying the plates showing the branding-iron fixed to the burladeros. But it soon ran out of steam and the initial capework and the suerte de varas were pure tramite. It wasn’t at all interested in the suerte de varas and Damian was never bothered by ‘Carpintero’ during the faena de muleta. Once again, the estocada was low. However, bull and bullfighter were given a round of applause.

Juan de Castilla has a good reputation with the aficionados of this feria. His first, and second of the morning, was ‘Postinero’ of José Escolar, but it lacked enthusiasm in the suerte de varas and banderillas. This allowed for well-placed sticks, especially by Ivan García, and excellent lidia by Raúl Cervantes. The death of ‘Postinero’ was dedicated to the public. Juan gave series with both hands, but, although he heard applause, there was little emotion generated by the bull. A pinchazo and an estocada contraria left Juan without awards.

What reputation Juan had with the public vanished with his second bull named ‘Burgalés’, a peach-coloured doloresaguirre. ‘Burgalés’ could well have been the bull of the feria, although it came out with no interest in events. It went al relance to the horse, but failed to charge the peto. Picador Borja Lorente, however, decided that he would assassinate the bull there and then. The spectators were incensed and matador Juan de Castilla, who was quite a way away, stood unmoved by what his picador was doing. ‘Burgalés’ went twice more to the horse, receiving the same treatment. The picador was jeered out of the ring. The tercio de banderillas was carried out under a complete din that continued throughout the faena de muleta, when the bull galloped every time it was offered the muleta. The jeering continued until the day’s final bull was signalled to enter.

Maxime Solera citing to kill his Escolar bull (Image by Roy Gittings)

Maxime Solera drew ‘Tosquetito’ of Dolores Aguirre in third place but soon showed his lack of experience in the initial capework. However, we did see an excellent suerte de varas with complete unison between picador Rafael Agudo and ‘Tosquetito’. Banderillas were placed with no problems because the bull had no interest in them. And neither did it have interest in the faena de muleta. Maxime downed it with a plethora of descabellos with his left hand.

The last bull of the feria was ‘Caminante’ of José Escolar which came out running rematando in the burladeros. We saw some good capework with the bull lowering its head. The suerte de varas had some good and some bad moments. The best part was when ‘Caminante’ galloped from the centre of the ring and thudded into the peto. And there, things ended because the bull reacted only when toreros were near and Maxime didn’t have his day.

All in all, the feria was a success and I am sure that next year we will see more carteles with “no hay billetes”. Get your tickets early or you will miss out.

The closing message (Image by Roy Gittings)