The Salford Matador

So John Cooper Clark is quite rightly known as 'The Salford Bard' , and now 'The Salford Matador' is back.

At 67, after retiring on doctor's advice 5 years ago, Frank 'El Ingles' Evans made a triumphant return to the bullring this weekend on the Costa del Sol.

Frank Evans, I salute you. Full story here.

San Fermin-Pamplona

Sadly there has been a death today in Pamplona, the first in years, and a Manchester University student is in hospital after being gored. Generously the town of Pamplona pay to fly dead people home, the man today was from Madrid.

San Fermin is something everybody should get to at least once, it really is spectacular. The bull running is only part of the fiesta, admittedly the best part:

Pamplona-San Fermin

I was drawn, perhaps a little ghoulishly, to a BBC headline declaring a man killed on the first day of the San Fermin fiesta in Pamplona. On reading the article I discovered that he was a drunken Irishman who fell off a wall. Sadly, it looks like the poor fella didn't get the chance to run with the bulls before he died.

There have also been demonstrations by green veggie types in their underwear against the bull run and subsequent bullfights. Let the bulls loose on the veggie types I say.

The fiesta has taken place since 1591 and incredibly only 13 deaths have been recorded since they started keeping count in 1924. If you can't get there this page has a superb video which really gives you a flavour of the real excitement of the bull run. Must try to get there again next year.