ÿþ<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> <title>About - The Club Taurino of London</title> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="base.css" /> </head> <body> <table width="800" align="center" border="0" class="banner"> <tr><td><img src="banner_home.jpg" width="800"height="178" alt="CTL Badge"/></td></tr> </table> <table width="800" align="center" border="0" class="mainhome"> <tr><td width="150" valign="top" class="navigation"> <div class="navbar" > <ul> <li><a href="index.html">Home</a></li> <li><a href="aboutctl.html">About the CTL</a></li> <li><a href="membership.html">Membership</a></li> <li><a href="paysubs.html">Pay Subscription</a></li> <li><a href="ladivisa.html">'La Divisa'</a></li> <li><a href="publications.html">CTL Publications</a></li> <li><a href="dvdsales.html">Corridas on DVD</a></li> <li><a href="gallery.html">Members Gallery</a></li> <li><a href="booksale.html">CTL Bookshop</a></li> <li><a href="links.html">Taurine Links</a></li> <li><a href="ctl_facebook.html">Facebook</a></li> </ul> </div> </td><td class="stdpage" width="650" valign="top"> <h2>Club History and Activities</h2> <p><div class="stdtext">The Club Taurino of London currently has almost 350 members. Members command of Spanish varies from nil to native. Mostly, however, communication is in English with a smattering of technical words in Spanish.</div></p> <h3>Club History</h3> <p><div class="stdtext">The Club was founded in 1959 by George Erik and a small group of fellow aficionados. We have grown into a loosely structured club of members who share a common interest in taurine matters.</p> <p>From small beginnings, the CTL has opened up membership far beyond the limits of London, and even further afield than the rest of the United Kingdom. We currently have members in most other European countries, in North America, Central and South America, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Australia and New Zealand.</div></p> <h3>Club Activities</h3> <h4>Meetings</h4> <p><div class="stdtext">We have meetings at 8 pm on the second Thursday of every month. These meetings are organised around special events arranged by the members. There may be visits by special guests from the taurine world, discussions of specific themes, book sales, quizzes, or simply the showing of videos, and the opportunity to meet up with other members for a chat in a convivial atmosphere. We are presently accommodated in a Spanish restaurant and tapas bar located in central London.</p> <p>Naturally enough, members also meet up at ferias, but this is all very casual, although CTL lunches during major ferias in Spain are becoming increasingly popular. We do not make package travel arrangements, because experience has shown that members prefer to go their own way. We do, however, offer advice and information about discounted air travel to taurine locations, and individual members are also usually happy to give advice about travel and accommodation at most ferias.</div></p> <h4>Anniversary Lunch</h4> <p><div class="stdtext">The annual Anniversary Lunch is usually during the last weekend of November. This is held in central London, and the Club invites celebrities from the taurine world to attend.</p> <p>In 2010 our guest was Juan Mora and in 2009 our guest was José Pedro Prados Martín <em>"El Fundi"</em>; in years before that our guests have included  in roughly descending chronological order: Miguel Abellán and Victorino Martín García, Jesús Janeiro <em>"Jesulín de Ubrique"</em>, Salvador Cortés, Matías Tejela, David Fandila <em>"El Fandi"</em>, Antonio Barrera, Julián López <em>"El Juli"</em>, Cesar Rincón, Luis Miguel Encabo, Francisco Rivera Ordoñez, Paco Camino, José Pacheco <em>"El Califa"</em>, José Tomás, Victorino Martín and Victor Mendes, Julio Robles, Manuel Caballero, José Miguel Arroyo <em>"Joselito"</em>, José Luis Bote, and Luis Francisco Esplá. Another frequent visitor is British matador and CTL member, Frank Evans. </div></p> <h4>Publications</h4> <p><div class="stdtext">The most important feature for the majority of our widespread membership is the bi-monthly magazine, La Divisa, which is composed entirely from contributions by members. There are news items, personal reports of corridas, translations of foreign articles, illustrations, and original articles debating taurine themes. The very high quality of this publication is admired worldwide, and it is seen as the leading English language publication on the subject.</p> <p>The Club has an extensive video and DVD library which makes available reference copies of VHS cassettes and DVDs of taurine subjects for members.</p> <p>The CTL also publishes books from time to time. For information about the Club s latest publications visit CTL Publications.</div></p> <h4>CTL Trophies</h4> <p><div class="stdtext">The CTL Trophies for the best matador, best novillero and best ganadero for the year, as elected by the membership, are announced at the Anniversary Dinner.</p> <p>In February 1999, we held a special lunch to celebrate our 40th year and were joined by Enrique Ponce, who received a special commemorative award, the George Erik Trophy.</p> <p>In February 2000, we invited the ganadero Antonio Miura and the matador Ruiz Miguel to receive another George Erik trophy on behalf of the house of Miura. A similar trophy has also been awarded to the ganadería of <em>Victorino Martín</em>.</p> <p>We organise a lunch during Madrid s feria of San Isidro and have organised homenajes to Antonio Chenel <em>"Antoñete"</em>, the Bienvenida dynasty, Julián López <em>"El Juli"</em>, César Jiménez, Sebastián Castella and Fernando Domecq of the <em>Zalduendo</em> ganadería. In 2009, being our 50th anniversary year, we held a special celebration lunch at the Hotel Wellington, attended by the British Ambassador in Madrid, and by our honorary vice-presidents, among other worthies of the taurine world. </div></p> <h4>Membership</h4> <p><div class="stdtext">Membership is open to all who think they would enjoy the benefits of belonging to this Club, especially if you think you may be able to contribute something to the well-being of other members in return.</p> <p>For more information about membership please visit <a href="membership.html">Membership</a> or to see how to pay subscriptions please visit <a href="paysubs.html">Pay Subscription</a>.</div></p> </td></tr> </table> </body> </html>