Minor triumph for Daniel Luque with unmotivated ‘zalduendos’ in the ‘sauna’ of Illumbe

The Sevillian bullfighter Daniel Luque yesterday carried off minor tone ears in the first event of the San Sebastián Semana Grande, in which a very uneven and unclassed Zalduendo herd was fought amid the stifling heat that prevailed in the covered Illumbe ring.

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The Sevillian bullfighter will fight again today, Friday, in the San Sebastián Semana Grande replacing Morante de la Puebla, who has justified his absence citing a renal colic, according to sources from the event organizing company. The medical report sent indicates that Morante presents “a strong pain in the right abdominal flank (…) and painful percussion in the renal fossa, both suggestive of renal colic,” which would prevent him from performing this afternoon in the Illumbe ring, although according to his environment he does hope to do so on Saturday in Gijón. Thus, today’s bill is composed of the rejoneador Guillermo Hermoso de Mendoza, Daniel Luque, and José María Manzanares, with bulls from Carmen Lorenzo for horseback bullfighting and from Garcigrande for bullfighting on foot.

Amid the general sweating and the constant fluttering of fans, without the movable roof of this enclosed venue opening once again this year, the small audience present did not find much compensation for so much discomfort with what happened on the sand, basically due to the poor performance of a very strangely grouped bullfight.

In fact, Borja Jiménez was assigned the two smallest bulls, both, according to the card, weighing the same 495 kilos and which, perhaps for that reason, were the most mobile of the sextet. Of them, the third, very sharp-horned, made several charges before calming down in moments prior to its flight towards the barriers.

But the bullfighter from Espartinas did not manage to connect with him, muleta in hand, due to the lack of composure in his passes and his moves, almost always lightly displacing the more manageable charges, ending up stabbing with the sword, which also happened with the last one, somewhat weak in the hindquarters, only that with a more than acceptable left horn for which Jiménez only managed a moderately decent series of natural passes.

On the other hand, in a contrast as illogical as marked, Diego Urdiales’ lot included two zambombos of 590 and 570 kilos, a hundred more than Jiménez’s, which, as expected, soon gave out, exhausted and afflicted, despite the Riojan bullfighter always doing everything in favor so that they would at least offer a couple of decent charges, which never happened.

The middle and medium lot was Luque’s, made up of two four-year-olds of correct presence and, although of moderate breed, with enough nobility and duration for the Gerena native to end up cutting those two ears that, without allowing him to leave on shoulders — the Basque regulation requires two appendages from the same bull — made him leave the overheated venue applauded.

Luque also treated them with sufficient demand, rather little, in a soft and linear muleta work to end up drawing from both a higher-level series that was the center of some worked and long performances that he closed at close range, with displays of little excitement, which the bored stands appreciated, and two quick-effect sword thrusts that caused the request and granting of the trophies.

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