Madrid, September 14: Difficult fare in Las Ventas

Miguel Andrades receives a horn blow to the head from his opening Rehuelga bull

There was a disappointing adjustment to today’s cartel, a desafío between bulls of Rehuelga and José Escolar, when Sebastián Ritter was brought in as a substitute for Damian Castaño, injured at Salamanca. I’ve seen Ritter a number of times before and usually associate him with cogidas.

In fact, he got off to a good start with a risky but successful quite to the day’s first bull featuring close tafalleras and gaoneras, Ritter having to adjust his body to avoid being caught. Come the lidia of his own rehuelga, however - dedicated to his fellow Colombian, Juan de Castilla, at a time when the country’s constitutional court has opted definitively to end bullfighting from 2027 - Sebastián was boring, producing very little with the capote and, in the faena, constantly citing with the pico and sending the animal away from him in the embroque. An estocada caída dropped the bull, which received pitos en arrastre while its matador heard palmas.

Sebastián Ritter in a tafallera to Andrades’ opening bull and (below) in a natural to his own rehuelga

Things went downhill in the second half of this corrida, the toreros more concerned about their safety once the escolares appeared. There was no capework to speak of from Ritter, while his picador had a great deal of trouble controlling his horse let alone picing the bull. Sebastián had strode in the paseíllo with a big grin on his face, as if to say to a friend in the tendido, “Here I am in Madrid, once again!” If that was the case, he certainly had a change of mind with his escolar (applauded on entry), which plainly scared him. He kept the animal at a distance in the faena before deciding on cutting muletazos, the crowd whistling its disapproval. Another estocada caída was followed by silence for man and bull.

Juan de Castilla in a natural to his rehuelga

Juan de Castilla was brought out to take saludos at the start of the corrida in recognition of his determination to appear here barely two weeks after receiving a cornada grave at Bayonne. He, too, shone in a quite (this to Ritter’s first bull), producing gaoneras and a kind of molinete that ended with the capote wrapped around him, but he drew the worst of today’s bulls. His rehuelga won applause as it emerged from the toriles but proved weak-legged, almost to the point of being replaced. Its faena was one of de menos a más, de Castilla performing some pleasingly slow and curving derechazos and naturales towards the end, albeit to an animal without transmission. He killed with a pinchazo and estocada, taking saludos after the bull had departed to pitos.

De Castilla gives a recorte to his escolar

Juan caped his cinqueño escolar to los medios in advance of some poor picing away from the designated zone and equally poor banderillas. There was a brindis to the public, but it was soon apparent there was very little to be achieved in the faena. A pinchazo and poor estocada was followed by four attempts to descabellar, with an interlude in the latter while the puntillero tried to despatch the animal, nearly being caught in the face for his labours. There was a division over the bull while de Castilla received silence.

Miguel Andrades steels himself for his confirmación and (below) greets his rehuelga with a farol de rodillas at the start of the faena

The jerezano Miguel Andrades will not look back on his early confirmación de alternativa (he became a matador at Alès in France at the end of May) with any degree of fondness. His opening attempt to meet his rehuelga a portagayola came to naught when the bull decided to move along the barrera instead, but Andrades recovered for a larga cambiada de rodillas and some decent verónicas. The applause at the end of the tercio de banderillas was more for the excellent brega of Marco Galán than for Miguel’s patchy performance with the sticks. In the faena, Andrades delivered some worthwhile derechazos and one or two good naturales, but the bull was not humillando and the tandas were short. The matador had cause to bless his short stature when he attempted to close with manoletinas and received a horn blow to his head that would have meant a cornada in the throat to taller toreros. But, come the kill, his comparative shortness versus the height of the bull proved a significant problem. There was a pinchazo, a sword that came out through the bull’s side, another pinchazo and then numerous attempts with the descabello, the spectators’ whistling and protests increasing; a third aviso was narrowly avoided. The bull was given unmerited applause en arrastre.

Andrades was almost caught in this pair of banderillas to his escolar

For some unknown reason, the closing escolar was subjected to four varas, trotting in to the last two with no serious intent. Andrades’ banderillas al cuarteo were once again all to the right horn, while he was almost caught in a risky attempt at placing the sticks whilst between the bull and the barrera. The bull gave the jerezano two serious warnings in an otherwise featureless faena. And then the difficulties killing returned; two pinchazos were followed by an estocada trasera y caída and silence for the matador. Tendido 7 got the last laugh by applauding the bull.