*Borja Jiménez with one of today’s moribund bulls from El Parr*alejo

I think I rarely get angry in a bullring, but by the end of the second bull this afternoon, I was seething. I’d just seen a vision of future toreo, and I didn’t like it one bit. It consisted of a torero toreando a bull con temple simply because the animal was so weak it could barely move and the crowd, spurred on by the admiring shouts of the taurinos behind the burladeros and in the callejón, applauding. The world of los toros as |’ve known it was fast disappearing in front of my eyes…

Burladero.tv had posted an article that same morning entitled ‘To be a great torero, you need great bulls’. Well, today, the bulls from El Parralejo were not great at all; indeed, they were worse than yesterday’s awful string from La Quinta, most of which at least moved.

Alejandro Talavante, on his day a great torero, effectively passed Santander by. The bulk of his first faena took place on the left horn, the cloth kept at mid-height to prevent the bull from falling. Eventually, he took note of those in the crowd asking him to collect the estoque and delivered a pinchazo and a bajonazo, causing others to applaud! The bull was dragged out to pitos while there was a division over Alejandro. The highlight of Talavante’s second lidia was the excellent banderillas from Javier Ambel. There was an early desarme in the faena, followed by some respectable naturales to a near-stationary bull. It took Talavante three swordthrusts to kill it, and there were pitos for the bull and silence for its matador.

*Borja Jiménez produced a fine faena with the best parralejo of the day - but failed with the sword*

Borja Jiménez’s banderillero Juan Carlos Rey had a lucky escape when the first of his jefe’s bulls crashed into him during the brega for the second tercio. Borja dedicated to the public and, accompanied by shouts of “Bien!” from the callejón, produced templados passes to a moribund bull. The animal sat after two poor pinchazos and the president agreed that the puntillero could finish things off. The bull was whistled en arrastre, while Jiménez received silence. Later, determined to improve things, Borja met his parralejo - the best of a very poor bunch - with excellently drawn verónicas, a chicuelina and a media verónica. He tried to take the bull to the picador with walking chicuelinas, but the bull preferred a direct charge to the horse. The faena was dedicated to the plaza and consisted of some fine series of curving derechazos and naturales, a couple of pases por la espalda and some well-judged de frente work to finish. But a pinchazo, estocada and three descabellos cost Borja any trophy. The bull was given applause while Borja took saludos to an ovation.

*… and a characteristically close bernadina*

David Pérez Sánchez, better known as David de Miranda, emerged as the day’s triunfador, narrowly losing an ear after a bajonazo downed his first bull, but winning an ear on his second. This was the first time I’ve seen him live since an afternoon novillada in Tudela many years ago; his toreo has become more vertical and manoletista, although he does turn the bull in passes rather than simply accompany it in parallel. He also passes the bull very closely indeed. His first faena was dedicated to the public and begun with ayudados which I hesitate to describe as por alto as David was on his knees at the time! After some fine series of muletazos, the matador was over-optimistic in citing for an arrucina and paid the price of a voltereta. The president opted to ignore the majority petition that followed the low sword, leading to protests from spectators. De Miranda must have been in some discomfort for his second faena, for he was later diagnosed with cervical trauma that affected his ability to move his neck and dropped out of Mont de Marsan’s feria as a result. Yet, with a poor animal, he brought off some templados derechazos and naturales, closed with hair-raisingly close manoletinas, and killed with a decent swordthrust to win the day’s only ear. In the end, the world had righted itself.

Santander, July 21: Almost the end of the world as we’ve known it

Santander, July 20: Success at the last