¡Cuarto feliz de Julio!

Since its founding, the 1st & 4th Subbuteo Club has used its notoriety prestige to champion various causes (the noblest among them being the discovery and extermination of cryptids, of course.) The Club shies from political movements (although every Joe Politco should fear the wrath of an enraged Subbuteo club--just wait 'til you see the strongly-worded letters hit your desk, Mr. Senator!), and instead rallies behind humanitarian causes that can be rather obscure. However, with our support, we raise incredible awareness of such causes, which to some is almost worth more than a financial contribution ... almost.

Now, with the 4th Tourney on the horizon, it's time to introduce what we're all playing for.





That damned Bastards' Cup!

Oh, sorry ... that's what we're playing to win, not what we're playing for. Let's try that again, shall we?


Late one night while strung out on year-old perfectly stale dry-aged Peeps, I flipped through the upper reaches of my Spanish-language channels in search of "Encontrar el Chupacabra" and discovered no cryptids but rather a whole new league of entertainment. Quite literally, I'd stumbled upon a new league even more unusual than our own: Bimbo presenta: el Mexicano Araña Federación de Lucha Libre. You read that right--Mexican spider wrestling (brought to you by the good people at Grupo Bimbo, Mexico's largest baking company.) My interest piqued, I subsequently watched 7 hours of their lively Cinco de Mayo Tournament, which seemed to be dedicated to raising awareness of how freaking awesome spider wrestling is (and, via their commercial breaks, an awareness of the lack of tequila in my life.)

Yes, each bloody, three-second tarantula melee was mesmerizing. And yes, I even thought of raising my own tarantula to compete in the my own neighborhood league. But before taking my newest hobby too far (you know, to the "let's-make-my-own-salt-from-seawater" level of crazy), one little arachnid caught my eye--and tugged at my heartstrings. 

El Ocho is his apodo, and kicking-ass is his juego. That is, until recently. Born the youngest in a family of five-hundred, El Ocho learned to dish out pain as good as he got at the 4,000 hands of his siblings. After devouring a couple dozen of his brothers and sisters before even leaving his nest, El Ocho realized that he had a certain knack for wrestling other spiders. In the wilds of Chihuahua, he grew robust enough to draw the attention of the local cartel, which sponsored the Juarez team in the Bimbo league. While they promised him compensation for his victories, El Ocho was wary to get caught up with the wrong crowd. But with their support, his dreams of reaching the prestigious Araneo Wrestling Federacio de Eŭropo seemed possible.*


Thankfully for the citizens of Juarez, the cartel has just recently been routed from terrorizing the city. But subsequently, the spider wrestling team of Juarez collapsed with the loss of their sponsor. El Ocho learned a valuable lesson about trusting drug lords, but now where can he turn to make his dreams come true?


That's where we--the 1st & 4th Subbuteo Club--come in. While we can't sponsor little El Ocho, we can raise awareness of his peculiar plight. And with that, the bosses of the European league may recognize his fighting potential and call him up to "el anillo grande de la lucha libre". With our help, El Ocho--that hairy hellion with an unseemly number of eyes--may just graduate to the next level.

¡Día de la independencia feliz!

*For those of you that don't speak Esperanto, this translates to "Spider-Wrestling Federation of Europe"