A born dreamer, he never wanted to do anything else. Frank Evans ends an illustrious career as Spain's only British bullfighter. We report on the end of an era. Ole!

Ole! Frank Evans in action

Most people come to Spain and teach English or find a job in a bar.

Not so, Frank Evans. He had other ideas altogether.

He is a self-proclaimed dreamer and his vision was playing — and beating — the Spaniards at their own game: bullfighting.

This blunt Lancastrian was as far as it is possible to be from the typical preening matador who cocks his head back and demands more applause from his adoring crowd.

Instead, Evans wears a toupee, looks every inch the former rugby league player he was and, by his own admission, is viewed as something of a novelty by the Spaniards.

But that has not stopped him making a sort of career as a torero known as El Ingles in Spain for almost 40 years.

Eventually, though, at the age of 63, an orthopaedic surgeon —not half-ton of raging black bull — called a halt to his days in the bullring.

Evans has retired as he needs to have a prosthetic knee fitted.

He must hang up his red capote (to the uninitiated, the red/purple cape matadors use to taunt the bull) for good.

His last fight was in August in his favourite bullring in Benalmadena, near Malaga, where he was carried aloft by aficionados bearing the ears of the bulls he had just defeated.

He has come a long way since practising in his local park in Salford, near Manchester, with shopping trolleys.

"When I started in the 60s, I used to practice in the park with a trolley as you can't just stick a sword in a live animal when you are practising," said Evans.

"I suppose I was strange. People used to laugh and shout olé! Now I am nothing unusual, like someone walking a dog."

He first fell in love with los toros when his father took him to a bullfight in 1963.

End of an era: Frank Evans must have a new knee

"I thought it was marvellous," he remembers.

"But the defining moment was reading the book by Vincent Hitchcock, another British bullfighter. That did it for me," he said.

"I just came to Spain and announced I was going to be a bullfighter. They started laughing and they have never really stopped.

Evans left Manchester for Spain and did odd jobs to get a work permit which allowed him get a professional bullfighting licence.

He eventually killed his first bull in France in 1966.

"I don't remember much of it, it was all a blur," he said. "Now it seems natural. Some people play golf at weekends, I fight bulls."

He took a break in the 70s, running a series of businesses from property companies to exporting tobacco from Spain, but was unable to stay away from la corrida.

Indeed, he is known to have interrupted business talks by explaining: "Look, I can't talk now, I have got two bulls to fight tomorrow." 

Evans soon realised his lack of latin artistry made him more a "curiosity" than a first-class bullfighter.

"I don't have the techniques or the looks of the latin bullfighters," he says.

Despite that he is admired for his cojones . (no translation needed).

Gored badly three times, when he was knocked around by a determined bull he once replied: "The wife's hit me harder."      

But he has had more trouble with animal rights activists than angry bulls.

"They have sent 'bombs' to my house, they have sent threatening letters to me and my mother," he reveals.

"But I have no time for them because they will not listen to reason.  For others who do not see the art behind bullfighting, it must seem shocking to see a bull killed for the first time, but it is no different from a slaughterhouse."

In Spain, the top toreros live like A-list celebrities, their every move followed by an adoring public.

Evans leads a more humble life, fighting about once a year.
 
Among the bullfighting cognoscenti, he is thought of as a romantic, which is not far from the truth.

"I love the applause, because I would be bored if I didn't, because I want to keep in touch with my youth, because I want to master this thing and because I am egomaniac," he admits.

He is only the third British matador, but Evans believes there may be more youngsters who have caught the bug.

"I have seen some British teenagers at the bullfighting school near Malaga and there is another guy in his twenties, so they may come through," he says.

Perhaps now Evans has put away his espada (sword) forever it is not only the bulls who can rest easy.

Evans, a married father-of-three, admits his long-suffering wife Margaret will be just a little relieved.

[Copyright Expatica]

[August 2005]

Subject: Spanish, British bullfighter