Pub landlord turns matador to pit his wits against a ferocious ram!
Description
Guildford, Surrey.
At the King's Head pub, three men being served their drinks at an outside table turn to see landlord Alf Marvin come out of the pub in a gold matador costume. Handing his cape to a lady in a semi-Spanish costume, he takes a rose from her hair and places it between her teeth - what a charmer!
Various shots of Alf showing off his matador skills against a ram called Bimbo in the pub garden. Alf is doing quite well until his nerve goes; he runs away and leaps over a small fence, hotly pursued by Bimbo, who gives the fence a good head-butt.
Note: on file is an amusing little programme for the day of 'Fiesta Brava!' at Alf's pub.
Great to discover this piece of history as I was the police sergeant at Ash when the 'bull fight' took place and my daughter Gill is the girl in the blue shorts looking on. The background to the event was even more amazing as Alf Marvin had told the whole wide world that a real bull fight was to take place in the backyard of the pub on that Sunday afternoon. There was intense media interest and come the day the BBC sent two separate teams to cover it, one news and the other a special events team. There were people from the Society against cruelty to animals parading outside with placards and the public turned out in great numbers to the extent that the roads around the pub came to a standstill for several hours. Alf kept up the story that the a bull would appear and eventually a large cattle transporter arrived with much banging on the sides from within. Fortunately everyone saw the funny side when the sheep emerged but I had wondered how with crowd might reacted. It all turned out be…
BobCozens says
Great to discover this piece of history as I was the police sergeant at Ash when the 'bull fight' took place and my daughter Gill is the girl in the blue shorts looking on. The background to the event was even more amazing as Alf Marvin had told the whole wide world that a real bull fight was to take place in the backyard of the pub on that Sunday afternoon. There was intense media interest and come the day the BBC sent two separate teams to cover it, one news and the other a special events team. There were people from the Society against cruelty to animals parading outside with placards and the public turned out in great numbers to the extent that the roads around the pub came to a standstill for several hours. Alf kept up the story that the a bull would appear and eventually a large cattle transporter arrived with much banging on the sides from within. Fortunately everyone saw the funny side when the sheep emerged but I had wondered how with crowd might reacted. It all turned out be…