Bloody Students...

Our destination today is Newcastle so we're on the 7:30am train from Kings Cross - it promises to be a long day and even Martin has seen the light as I arrive to find him having breakfast in Da Vincis.

Too early for any other football fans today despite the early kick off at the Stadium of Light - the train is quiet until Doncaster when the carriage becomes full of confused women trying to find their seats as they head to York for Christmas shopping.

Brian joined the train too and we join him in the relative quiet of coach H. At Darlo we're joined by John W, Neil and Claude.


On arrival at Central station we wander off to get our Metro tickets for later - by now Trev has turned up - and we head off to the Newcastle Arms.  We find John, Rich and Andy waiting for it to open and after a few minutes the elderly barmaid turns up and attracts the attention of the manager. In at last!



Rocky (Dave!), Cath and Ted



Amongst those on tap today are Hadrian & Border Needles & Pins, Durham White Amarillo and Big Lamp Prince Bishop. The White Amarillo is very disappointing - thin and not a lot of flavour - but the Needles & Pins is very tasty and the pick of the bunch.

As we sup the management turn the TV on and rather than sport, we watch Lorraine Pascale as she makes some very tasty looking desserts whilst being very suggestive a la Nigella. Beats Football Focus.

As the clock approaches noon, we decamp and head on down to the Bridge Hotel - John Bell has arrived and is with Frank who is standing in for Gateshead chum Steve who is indisposed.

Once again, my old Uni chum Cath has popped along - not long after another old chum, Rocky (or Dave as his family call him) joins us too - we've not seen him since 1984 so we have some catching up to do. I'm pleased to see he still likes his beer.

A good selection at the bar: Summer Wine Rouge Hop, Bristol Beer Factory Independence, Buxton English Pale Ale, Gundog Gundog, Harbour IPA, Moor Revival and Allendale Tarbarl Stout plus Tempest A Face With No Name on keg.

Most of our little band are happy in the Bridge but a few of us wander off to visit the wonderful Crown Posada.  Not necessarily wonderful for the number of beers - they have four taps - but the general atmosphere with the old Dansette playing easy listening vinyl.  A quiet little haven.

The two Johns and I decide to order a taxi - John B goes outside to do so and when he comes back he can't find his wallet. He checks all his pockets and we check the immediate surroundings - even the other punters check but no joy.

A real mystery and we can only assume he has dropped it and someone has taken it.


Keeper Craig Turns
goes off injured



We arrive at Team Northumbria's ground by taxi about half-way through the first half. As a student I used to play football on the pitches in this area - the Geordie version of Hackney Marches.

As we enter the ground the score is nil-nil. The game looked quite even at this point though neither side was creating realistic chances.

Shortly before the first half ended goalless, Darlo keeper Craig Turns was injured and replaced by Jack Norton.

Sadly for Norton (and Darlo) he was beaten by a low shot shortly after the restart.  Not a good start.

This spurred Darlo into action and for most of the second half we were constantly attacking. However far too many moves broke down due to a poor final ball or poor finishing as the ball whizzed across the Team Northumbria six-yard box.

The away fans were all starting to get very tetchy at the lack of an equaliser - something we've maybe not seen much of so far this season.  It didn't help when it looked like TN had scored a second only for the ref to disallow it.

As time ran out, we walked towards the exit - the ref seeming to be playing a lot of additional time - TN attack on the counter and score to make it 2-0 and that's it, game over.

We don't wait for the final whistle but trudge back to the Metro.  Thankfully a train soon turns up and we're back at Central station by 5:30pm.

As the others go to the Forth Hotel for some more beer, I buy a train ticket for John so he can get home. He isn't interested in any beers and who could blame him?  I'm sure he wished he'd ignored his alarm for once.

Thankfully we have an unremarkable trip back to Kings Cross - I'm sure we slept for most of the journey - and since Martin has had his fill of beer for the day, I head off alone to the Euston Tap.

Team Northumbria defend
in numbers 

Not a problem though as there is always someone to chat to there - tonight I meet another Ted - just what the world wants!

Some cracking beers as ever - Mikkeller Solstice Saison, De Molen Amarillo, Magic Rock High Wire, Summer Wine Oregon and Thornbridge Wye.

The Wye is an interesting beer - it is infused with cucumber and is very light and refreshing but still packs at punch at 4.7%. I tried this at the Borefts festival a few months ago but this is even better.

I was still going strong but last orders are called and I wander off to Euston Square, getting back to Upton Park just before 1am. Thankfully the Kebabish is still open - not one of the best curry houses but at this time of the day it'll do just fine.

Northern League Debut

Get back in the football groove - that was the plan for today as I left the house at 5:30am and headed off to Kings Cross.  Thankfully Da Vincis opens early so I was able to have a comprehensive breakfast before we caught the 7:30am train north.

Given the early hour, it wasn't a surprise to find the train was not heavily loaded.  Just as well as the seat reservations hadn't been printed, confusing passengers as they joined en route. 

John, Martin, Steve, John and Cath
in the Bacchus

As we pulled into Bank Top station it felt wrong not to be getting off and heading into town.  John Wilson was on the platform waiting for us and joined us for the final leg to Newcastle Central station.

Before we went to the first pub, we had a wander round the famous Grainger Market where, as a student in the early 80s, I used to get 28p a pound ox liver.  Martin commented he'd never seen so many butchers under one roof and it was hard to decide which of their pies to plump for.

The first pub of the day was an old favourite - helped by the fact it opens at 11am - the Newcastle Arms. Given it's proximity to St James' Park the Sports Direct Arena the pub would normally be busy at this hour on matchdays but thankfully Newcastle's game had been moved to Sunday.

The beers at the bar were Anarchy Brewery Sublime Chaos (7.0 breakfast stout), Big Lamp Golden Star,
Temptation 7 Deadly Sins, Triple F Moondance, TSA Sherrifmuir and Wensleydale Gold.  Of those I tried the breakfast stout was very tasty but a half was more than enough.

From here we crossed the city centre to the Bacchus, pub of the year for the fourth time in a row, and where we found our Gateshead chum Steve waiting for us.

Geoff T spots me



The Bacchus strikes me as a larger version of Number Twenty-2 and there is a good choice of cask and nu-key beers. 

Best in show for me was the the excellent Tempest White Light - excellent albeit at 7% not something to overdose on. Summer Wine's Dr Paracelsus looked interesting but a taster was enough - far too much spice to this one.

At the bar I bumped into Ken, a ticking type from Durham. We used to regularly see him in the Quaker but Newcastle has got such a vast array of good pubs these days, he has more than enough beers here to keep him busy.

Also joining us was Cath, one of my chums from my university days in Newcastle.  After graduation Cath stayed in the area and her Cheltenham burr has long given way to a subtle Geordie tang.  It was good to see her again.

After a few beers Steve suggested we wander to the Bridge Hotel - another of my student haunts - where we met a few of his buddies.  After a few more beers - and some cheek from the barmaid - we took a taxi ride to Dunston.

The UTS stadium is a large flat ground with just a couple of stands, surrounded by trees and feeling quite rural.  It was clear to see there was a healthy Darlo contingent in attendance, swelling the attendance to  almost 800. 

The players were warming up as we came in and it was hard for me to put a name to any of them save the Purewals and the guy who seems to love tanning machines - well scary.

I had a reduced set of camera gear with me today and didn't really have a need to be pitchside.  As a consequence I ended up doing more talking than usual - catching up with a lot of familiar faces - and so paid less attention to the game than normal.

The first half was pretty even and it looked as if the home side would take the lead when they were awarded a penalty.  The spot kick wasn't brilliant but Norton did well to save it. 

Dunston would regret this almost instantly as Darlo scored within a few minutes when Joe Tait (apparently) scored with a close range header.  The score remained the same when the ref blew for half-time.

In the second half it remained a fairly even game with Darlo shading the number of goal-scoring chances but neither side being able to put the ball away.

Tait and Scott celebrate
as Darlo go 1-0 up

It was Darlo's turn to be awarded a penalty after about 70 mins as the uber-tanned Leon Scott was brought down - Reay showed the way to take a penalty and put Darlo 2-0 up.

Darlo scored a third in the dying seconds as young Lowes rounded the keeper to put the game well beyond reach.

As we left the ground and waited for our taxi, about five police vehicles turned up - trouble at the far end of the ground apparently after the game but I have to say we were oblivious of it all.

We caught a taxi back to Central station where some of us went for a final pint in the Forth on Pink Lane, an avenue of disrepute in my student days but now quite a decent little cut-through with nice pubs and cafes.

And then it was time for the the train back to Kings Cross, most of which was spent snoozing.

Since Martin had already had a few halves, I ended up going to the Euston Tap on my own but it wasn't long before I was chatting to some of the other regulars.

Nothing particularly interesting on cask tonight so I went for a few nu-keg beers - Red Willow Ageless & Wreckless were both excellent whilst Tempest Face With No Name and Hop Studio Pilsner were pretty decent.

All in all, mission successful - I feel well and truly back in the groove...

When Winter (Comes Howling In)

Even though I'd been told that the game at Gateshead was extremely unlikely to go ahead, the decision to hold an inspection at 9:30am on match day instead of calling it off earlier meant that Martin and I felt we had to set off - just in case - and so we left London on the 7am train.

The first text indicating the game was off came as we passed through Northallerton and it was more or less confirmed as we arrived in Darlo. There we were joined by Tony and Brian and a swift decision, already formed in our heads, was made to carry on and have a day out in Geordieland.

Thankfully Central Station still has a left luggage service and once I'd dropped off my camera bag, we went for a wander around town.

We dropped into the Newcastle United club shop, filled with a wide array of NUFC tat - I'd hoped they'd have a plain black and white scarf but it seems that everything has to have the club logo on it these days.

(left) DAFTS lads at the entrance to Chinatown

Next stop was the Back Page - a shop which has loads of football books, videos and memorabilia with a healthy bias towards the north-east clubs.

Unfortunately the only Darlo representation in the shop was two copies of George's opus, Cracked It!

Our first port of call was just over the road from here - the Newcastle Arms - and this normally opens at 11am but wasn't opening until noon today. Even worse, my backup pub, the Bodega, was closed for the day. Damn you, festive season!

We were a bit peckish after all the walking so we decided to fill in time and find somewhere to eat - the Stateside Diner on Pink Lane was one of the few places open and it did a mean bacon and egg sarnie too.

We got into the Newcastle Arms just after opening time and they had their usual choice of interesting beers - their own Winter IPA brewed by local brewer Big Lamp plus Falstaff Brewery's Yeti, Thornbridge Hopton, Marston Moor Porter, Deuchars IPA and Durham Apollo. All went down well with the Yeti finding special favour with Martin who stuck to it.

After a few bevvies we decided to pop down to the Crown Posada - a must for those who've never been supping around Newcastle - but when we got there we found it was shut!

After a bit of wandering round we popped into the Duke of Wellington on High Bridge - a few handpumps here with Hadrian-Border Tyneside Blonde and Taylor's Landlord the ones I remember.

When I was a student in Newcastle in the early 80s, this pub was one of a small number owned by CAMRA.

These days it is now a normal pub although there was a live TV feed from Greece of the Spurs -v- Newcastle game. Not surprisingly the place was full of their fans getting irate every time a decision went against their boys.

(right) Bacchus Boys

This soon got extremely tedious so after we'd finished our beers we popped a bit further along the road to the Bacchus. This has been the local CAMRA pub of the year for 2009 and 2010.

It struck me as being a larger version of Darlo's Number Twenty-2 - similar vibe and clientele and some good beers too including Jarrow Rivet Catcher and Yorkshire Dales Bacchus Ice Crystal plus some London Stout and Wheat from the Meantime Brewery.

By the time we'd had a few more beers and discussed to death the regime at DFC, it was time for Martin and I to wend our way back to Central station and the train back to London - asleep for most of it you'll not be surprised to hear.

I'd like to think I'll be back up for the game when it is finally rescheduled but it will all depend when that that is - hopefully when the weather is a bit more clement.

I've named this piece after this excellent song by Lindisfarne about the true meaning of Christmas, more or less a solo by Alan Hull, long gone but still missed.

Obsession

The main reason for my visit to Newcastle was to see Punishment of Luxury, one of my all time favourite bands, who were playing in the east of the city. The band hail from Tyneside so this should be a good place to see them live.

Before then, I spent some of the day wandering round Leazes Park and Spital Tongues area of town where I spent a year in a hall of residence. Not much has changed other than the sheer size of St James' Park which now dominates the skyline.

After a quick visit to the Newcastle Arms and a chat with the tickers, I met up with an old university friend, Cath, and her husband in the Forth Hotel pub.

It was good to see them both again and we caught up on all our news over a meal and a few beers. It's almost thirty years since we started university - where did all the time go?

I retired to my hotel for a couple of hours before meeting my sister Becky at the station and we wandered along the quayside admiring all the new developments. I had thought it would be good to walk to the gig but I'd misjudged the route so we caught a taxi.

The venue for the gig was the Cluny - another Head of Steam establishment but a world away from the Central Bar.

This is more like a venue with a big bar added on. Still, they had a healthy selection of beers plus some Belgian fruit beers for Becky.

(left) Punishment of Luxury

We wandered into the gig itself about 10pm, missing any support band that may have been on, and settled down the front.

After some problems with the keyboards the band came on with their usual opener, Puppet Life, which got everyone moving.

The setlist was mainly gleaned from the Laughing Academy album, plus a few singles, plus the odd song which never made it onto vinyl (as it was then).

The highlight for me was the rendition of Obsession, a tale of a man who stalks and kills a girl he fancies. Sounds jolly doesn't it? But it's a wonderful dark song which was often the last thing I heard as I went to bed as a youngster - it never fails to raise the hairs on the back of my neck even after all these years.

They'd not played it for a while and guitarist Nev obviously wasn't very confident of his memory as he had his lyrics for this track printed out and put in front of his mic stand. I suspect it was more of a mental crutch as he didn't need to use it. The whole crowd knew the lyrics anyway.

(right) Lyrics to Obsession written out for Nev

And then the gig was over and we were out in the cold Tyneside air where we got a number for a taxi from Jimi Giro's daughter. I don't think she was very impressed when our taxi arrived first.

On the way back to our hotel it was interesting to witness the nightlife in the centre of the city - every bit as stereotypical as you'd expect - scantilly dressed women tottering around in high heels defying the wintry winds blasting across the city.

We were delighted to see one young lass, eating her chips whilst sitting on a tiny window ledge - her arse slipped and she fell off, legs in the air and chips everywhere. I think it's fair to say she was more upset about losing her chips than her dignity...

Meet Me On The Corner

Originally I had intended to travel up for the game at Morecambe with a few southern-based DAFTS but I ducked out a couple of months ago when I found it clashed with a gig I wanted to see which is why I spent the weekend in Newcastle instead of the north-west.

I decided to travel up early on the Friday and take time re-visit some of my old haunts - I was at university there in the early 80s - and a brisk InterCity service saw me arrive at Central station before noon.

It was a bit early to check in at my hotel so I wandered over the Tyne Bridge to Gateshead and took in the massive redevelopments around the Quayside since my last visit in 2001 - the Sage and the Gateshead Millennium bridge amongst the most obvious ones but there has been a lot of other new buildings put up too.

However I was in search of something a bit older - a pub called the Central Bar which had been bought by the Head of Steam chain and is in the process of being given an expensive makeover. North-East CAMRA chum John Holland had suggested it was well worth seeing.

Unfortunately it is completely hidden behind scaffolding but click here to see what it looks like without the covering.

(left) Buffet bar at the Central Bar

Inside the pub has some wonderful original features - such as panelled walls and a wonderful old buffet bar which is not currently in use.

There are plans to open this bar and other rooms plus build a rooftop terrace.

The beer choice was decent too - and all in good nick - with a choice of Hop Back Crop Circle, Elgoods Copper Feelgood, Big Lamp Bitter and Harviestoun Bitter & Twisted.

The renovation still has a long way to go and it will probably be another six months before it is all complete but it promises to a small but significant step in the on-going regeneration of this part of Gateshead.

The next pub on my itinerary was an old favourite of mine - the Crown Posada on The Side, the road that weaves down to the Quayside from the centre of town.

In my time there in the 80s, it served Taylors Landlord and toasted curry sandwiches (albeit with sultanas in the curry - verboten!) - today the toasties are no longer on offer but the beer is still good and the food is now stotties with basic fillings.

(right) Crown Posada - note stain glass windows

For a Friday lunchtime, the pub is relatively quiet and I'm able to sit at the bar. My attempts to chat with the barman are in vain - not a chatty type. No jukebox either - just a Dansette-style record player and a load of 12" easy listening LPs.

Beers on offer include Lord Collingwood Festive Ale, brewed by local brewery Wylam to mark the 200th anniversary of the death of Admiral Lord Collingwood, who helped Nelson defeat the French at Trafalgar. I'll drink to that.

Also on offer were Mordue Workie Ticket, Black Sheep Bitter, Jarrow Bitter plus a couple from Hadrian and Border - Gladiator Bitter and the curiously named Are You Listening Gordon Heal?

Just as I was supping up, the tranquility was broken by a 22-strong stag party from Wales - all on bottles of Bud. Very boisterous but friendly - "Hello all! Oh look, it's Adam Jones! Legend!!".

They were referring to me, dear reader, and my alleged likeness to a hairy Welsh rugby international.

(left) A hairy man with a camera (photo © BBC)

I made a hasty but dignified exit and took the opportunity to check into my hotel before moving onto one of Newcastle's premier pubs for the casketeer - the Newcastle Arms - on the edge of Chinatown (which was never there in my day).

The Newcastle Arms was a pub we avoided years ago but today is highly regarded - and this weekend they've got a beer festival on. How's that for synchronicity?

There was the main bar with six pumps and then another six on temporary stillage and a whole host of beers that I'd not come across. Too many to list so I won't.

There was a healthy contingent of CAMRA folk, both from the local branch and further afield, with whom I had a good natter. There was also a plethora of tickers (or scratchers/scoopers) going through the beer list.

I came back here for another session on the Saturday lunchtime and met Ken, a ticker from Durham, who often used to popped into the Quaker House on a Saturday lunchtime. He was with a few other scoopers, all on halves of course. The staff will even get samples from beers still in the cellar for these lads (known as a cellar run) and you can see that it's appreciated.

Beer ticking has never interested me as such - I'm happy to drink new beers of course but won't record them save for mentioning them here (cos my memory is not what it was) - and the pursuit was the subject of a recent documentary.

I've yet to see it so don't know whether it puts them in a favourable light. They can be an easy target with their obsessiveness but they're a friendly bunch and some are even married!

I was very impressed with the Newcastle Arms - not just the beer, that's a given - but the management and staff were very friendly and although they don't food, they're happy for you to bring your own.

Little wonder then that it has been the top pub in Newcastle for three of the last four years (and runner-up when it didn't come top).

This particular day ended relatively early in the evening but in traditional style - I ordered a takeaway curry and had another quick pint in the Posada whilst waiting before returning to the hotel with my grub.

NB: For a useful guide to pubs and beers in Newcastle and the surrounding area, check out this site.

Late Update: The Newcastle Arms was bridesmaid again this year as it came second to the Bacchus which has just been named Newcastle CAMRA Pub of the Year 2010.